S35 


EX  L1BRIS 


"The  Mormon  Prophet's  Tragedy" 


A  Review  of  an  Article  by  the  late  John  Hay, 
published  originally  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for 
December,  1869,  and  republished  in  the  Saints 
Herald  of  June  21,  1905. 


THE  REVIEWER, 

ORSON  F.  WHITNEY 

Author  of  Whitney's  History  of  Utah,  and  Assistant  Historian  of  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints. 


Salt  Lake  City,  Utah 

THE  DESERET  NEWS 

1905 


F 


Copyright    1905. 

By 
O.  F.  WHITNEY. 


INTRODUCTORY. 


"The  wisdom  of  their  wise  men  shall  perish,  and  the  under- 
standing of  their  prudent  men  shall  be  hid." — Isaiah  29:  14, 

I  have  often  pondered  over  the  fulfillment  of 
these  prophetic  words,  with  reference  to  the  lofty  and 
the  learned  and  their  relations  to  what  the  world 
terms  "Mormonism."  Why  is  it  that  men  and  wo- 

^  men,  intelligent,  educated,  and  even  profound,  can- 
not see  in  this  great  social  and  religious  phenomenon 

B  something  more  than  a  topic  to  be  treated  in  a  light 
and  flippant  vein,  or  in  a  spirit  of  harshness  and  in- 

^     tolerance!     Giants   in   intellect  as   to  other  things, 

^  when  they  deal  with  the  history,  doctrines,  aims  and 
motives  of  the  Latter-day  Saints,  they  seem  suddenly 
changed  into  dwarfs,  mere  children,  as  powerless  to 
cope  with  the  mighty  problem  as  were  the  learned 
rabbis  in  the  Temple  with  the  youthful  and  divine 
Son  of  God.  Especially  is  this  the  case  with  those 

£1  who  approach  it  in  a  captious  spirit,  determined  to 
find  fault,  to  attack  and  ridicule  rather  than  to  fairly 
investigate.  They  cannot  analyze  it,  cannot  even 
grasp  it,  and  are  incapable  of  forming  any  just  or 
proper  conclusion  in  relation  to  it. 

To  those  who  understand  the  subject, even  in  part, 
it  presents  the  most  beautiful  and  most  attractive 
phases.  It  is  truly  t  'a  marvelous  work  and  a  wonder. ' ' 
Nothing  in  the  whole  wide  realm  of  thought,  in  the 
universal  domain  of  reason,  science,  poetry  and  phil- 
osophy, compares  with  it  in  sublimity  and  loveliness. 
Why,  then,  do  "the  wise  and  prudent,"  as  they  are 


INTRODUCTORY. 

called,  pass  it  by  as  a  thing  of  naught,  or  pause  only 
long  enough  to  smile,  sneer,  or  cast  a  stick  or  a  stone 
with  a  view  to  injuring  and  defacing  it?  To  the  un- 
initiated, even  if  fair  and  tolerant,  there  appears  to 
be  little  in  "Mormonism"  that  reasonable  men  and 
women  should  desire;  at  best  it  is  but  one  among 
many  creeds  and  systems  with  which  the  world  is 
filled.  While  to  those  who  have  embraced  it,  and 
have  partaken  of  its  spirit,  it  stands  alone,  unique, 
all-comprehending — the  sum  of  eternal  truth,  the 
glorified  record  of  Clod's  dealings  with  man  in  all 
dispensations. 

Why  this  difference?  Why  do  not  all  intelligent 
minds  recognize  in  "Mormonism"  what  its  votaries 
recognize?  Are  the  Gentiles  all  philosophers,  and 
the  Mormons  (who  were  once  Gentiles)  all  fools?  Is 
all  wisdom  outside  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of 
Latter-day  Saints?  I  think  not.  There  must  be  a 
better  explanation.  What  is  it? 

I  shall  not  attempt  to  answer  the  question  at  the 
present  time;  though  I  could  do  so,  I  believe,  to  the 
satisfaction  of  at  least  the  Latter-day  Saints.  I  pre- 
fer that  my  readers,  Mormon  and  non-Mormon, 
should  answer  it  for  themselves.  My  duty  here  is  to 
present  a  review  of  a  public  utterance,  upon  a  por- 
tion of  the  Mormon  theme,  of  one  of  the  world's 
wise  men,  who,  while  possessing  every  advantage 
that  intelligence  and  culture  could  give,  failed  utterly 
to  recognize  the  truth,  to  comprehend  the  mightiest 

problem  of  the  ages. 

ORSON  F.  WHITNEY. 

Salt  Lake  City,  October,  1905. 


"THE  MORMON  PROPHETS  TRAGEDY/* 

Under  the  above  caption,  the  " Saints'  Herald, ' '  a 
paper  edited  and  published  by  Joseph  Smith  and 
associates,  at  Lamoni,  Iowa,  and  proclaiming  itself 
to  be  the  "official  publication  of  the  Keorganized 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints,"  gave 
space  in  its  issue  of  June  21,  1905,  to  the  reproduc- 
tion of  an  article  purporting  to  be  an  account  of 
events  leading  up  to  and  culminating  in  the  murder 
of  the  Prophet  and  the  Patriarch,  Joseph  and  Hyrum 
Smith,  at  Carthage,  Illinois,  June  27,  1844.  The 
article  was  written  by  Colonel  John  Hay,  American 
poet  and  statesman,  many  years  before  he  became 
Secretary  of  State,  though  not  before  he  had  risen  to 
prominence  in  the  field  of  diplomacy. 

Had  not  the  Lamoni  publishers  seen  fit  to  re- 
print this  rather  ancient  piece  of  literature,  the  sub- 
joined review  of  it  probably  would  never  have  ap- 
peared. They  doubtless  thought  that  the  so-called 
u  Tragedy n  would  make  good  and  appropriate  read- 
ing for  the  anniversary  month  of  the  Prophet's  mar- 
tyrdom. Their  only  comment  in  connection  with  it 
is  this  brief  introduction:  " The  ' Atlantic  Monthly' 
for  December,  1869,  published  the  following  article 
from  the  pen  of  John  Hay,  now  Secretary  of  State, 
Washington.  As  an  account  from  the  standpoint 


6  "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY." 

of  a  non-member,  it  will  be  of  interest  to  our  read- 


ers.' 


The  wisdom  of  resurrecting  such  a  mass  of 
misstatements,  written  in  a  spirit  of  rank  prejudice, 
flippant  in  style,  heartless  in  tone,  and  worthy  only 
of  the  oblivion  to  which  the  sure  years  had  consigned 
them,  might  well  be  questioned;  but  I  do  not  care  to 
dwell  upon  that  point  at  this  tune.  The  responsibility 
must  rest  where  it  belongs.  Wisdom  was  never  a 
characteristic  of  those  bent  upon  popularizing  the 
truth  by  emasculating  it.  The  duty  devolving  upon 
the  present  writer  is  to  point  out  the  errors  which  the 
article  contains,  and  counteract  so  far  as  can  now  be 
done,  the  ill  effects  of  their  dissemination.  This  is 
the  purpose,  rather  than  to  find  fault  with  the  La- 
moni  editors,  or  with  the  eminent  scholar  and  states- 
man who  has  now  passed  to  his  final  account. 

The  sudden  death  of  Secretary  Hay,  only  ten 
days  after  the  issuance  of  that  particular  imprint  of 
the  paper  in  question,  was  of  course  unforeseen  by 
the  publishers;  nor  is  it  desired  that  the  event  should 
cut  any  figure  in  the  case  as  presented  by  this  re- 
view. I  would  much  rather  Mr.  Hay  were  alive  than 
dead.  Our  country  needs  the  services  of  such  men 
as  he,  one  of  the  wisest  of  her  diplomats,  one  of  the 
ablest  of  her  civic  servants.  I  am  sorry  that  he 
could  not  have  perused  the  contents  of  this  pam- 
phlet. He  might  have  profited  thereby.  Possibly 
it  would  have  induced  him  to  revise  himself,  if  in- 
deed he  had  not  done  so  already.  I  cannot  resist 
the  impression  that  John  Hay,  Secretary  of  State, 


UTHE   MOEMON   PEOPHET's   TEAGEDY."  7 

would  not  have  written  the  article  penned  by  John 
Hay,  politician  and  journalist.  Men  grow  some  in 
thirty- six  years,  and  this  man  grew  remarkably  dur- 
ing his  last  two  decades.  Had  he  produced  his 
4 'Tragedy7'  in  1905,  instead  of  1869,  I  doubt  that  he 
would  have  made  himself  an  apologist  for  mobs 
and  murder;  that  he  would  have  treated  in  a 
lightsome,  humorous  vein,  a  theme  so  serious,  so 
essentially  solemn  and  awful,  as  the  killing  of  inno- 
cent men,  revered  by  hundreds  of  thousands  of  his 
fellow  citizens  as  veritable  prophets  of  God.  It  was 
altogether  unworthy  of  a  great  man,  or  of  one  who 
wished  to  be  considered  fair  and  impartial. 

In  the  hope  that  it  may  assist  the  great  men  of 
our  land  now  living,  or  who  may  yet  live,  as  well  as 
the  public  at  large,  to  a  better  understanding  of  the 
subject  than  was  possessed  by  Mr.  Hay  when  he 
wrote  uThe  Mormon  Prophet's  Tragedy,"  this  an- 
swer is  indited  and  sent  forth.  May  the  Spirit  of 
Truth  prepare  the  way  for  its  acceptance  by  the 
honest  in  heart! 


4 'OLD  JOE  SMITH.  7 

The  first  thing  in  the  article  under  review  that 
strikes  the  reader  unpleasantly,  is  the  flippant,  al- 
most jocular  mood  in  which  it  is  written;  a  feature 
foreign  to  the  true  spirit  of  history  (to  say  nothing  of 
poesy) ,  and  quite  unbecoming  a  Christian  scholar  in 
the  treatment  of  a  tragic  theme.  At  the  very  open- 


8  "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY." 

ing  of  the  satirical  onslaught,  the  would-be  funny 
author  refers  to  his  subject  as  "the  prophet  Joe 
Smith,"  and  then  proceeds  to  ridicule  him,  and  to 
blacken  his  character  in  advance  of  the  main  narra- 
tive; the  evident  purpose  being  to  prejudice  the  pub- 
lic mind  against  the  founder  of  "Mormonism,"  with 
a  view  to  palliating  if  not  justifying  "the  deep 
damnation  of  his  taking  off." 

The  contemptuous  nicknaming  of  the  Prophet, 
if  excusable  at  all,  must  be  upon  the  ground  that  it 
was  common  among  politicians  of  that  period  to  ab- 
breviate the  given  names  of  men,  even  the  most  emi- 
nent; a  practice  not  yet  obsolete,  though  only  in 
favor  with  the  vulgar.  Thus  we  have  such  familiar 
titles  as  "Abe"  Lincoln,  "Steve"  Douglass,  et  al., 
in  the  political  nomenclature  of  the  State  of  Illinois. 
But  I  submit  that  it  would  have  been  in  better  taste 
for  a  scholarly  writer,  a  Christian  gentleman,  one 
who  would  hardly  have  tolerated  such  a  disrespect- 
ful allusion  to  the  murdered  President  Lincoln,  and 
might  even  have  felt  nettled  had  he  himself  been  re- 
ferred to  as  "Jack"  Hay,  to  have  refrained  from 
this  exhibition  of  discourtesy  to  the  dead,  this 
all  but  ribald  reference  to  one  regarded  by  a 
great  and  growing  people  as  a  prophet  and  a  martyr 
to  a  sacred  cause. 

True,  such  nicknames  are  not  always  used  ill 
naturedly.  In  the  backwoods  they  might  indicate  a 
sort  of  rude  affection  for  the  persons  to  whom  they 
are  given.  But  it  is  not  so  in  this  instance,  and 
even  if  it  were,  it  would  still  be  an  impropriety.  It  may 


"THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY. "  9 

be  said,  however,  in  further  extenuation  of  this  breach 
of  literary  etiquette  and  Christian  charity,  that  the 
sectarian  churches,  almost  from  the  beginning  of 
Mormon  history,  had  stigmatized  the  youthful  revela- 
torof  the  unpopular  religion,  as  u Old  Joe  Smith ;"  and 
as  Mr  Hay  was  reared  among  such  influences  it  is  not 
surprising  that  he  should  have  adopted  the  prevailing 
mode  and  incorporated  the  epithet  into  his  religious 
and  political  creed. 

Joseph  Smith  himself  once  reproved  a  Methodist 
minister  for  neglecting  to  observe  the  amenities  to- 
ward him  in  this  respect.  The  incident  is  related  by 
Josiah  Quincy,  who  was  a  guest  of  the  Prophet  at 
his  home  in  Nauvoo,  only  a  few  weeks  before  the 
martyrdom.  The  reverend  gentleman,  who  was  also 
visiting  the  City  of  the  Saints,  had  remarked,  "Why, 
I  told  my  congregation  the  other  Sunday  that  they 
might  as  well  believe  Joe  Smith  as  such  theology 
as  that!"  "Did  you  say  Joe  Smith  in  a  ser- 
mon ?"  inquired  the  person  to  whom  the  title  had 
been  applied.  "Of  course  I  did.  Why  not?"  Says 
Mr.  Quincy,  "the  Prophet's  reply  was  given  with  a 
quiet  superiority  that  was  overwhelming:  ' Consider- 
ing only  the  day  and  the  place,  it  would  have  been 
more  respectful  to  have  said  Lieutenant-General  Jos- 
eph Smith.'  Clearly  the  worthy  minister  was  no 
match  for  the  head  of  the  Mormon  Church." 

THE  "TRAGEDY"  OPENS. 

Now  let  us  see  what  Mr.  Hay  has  to  present. 
"As  early  as  1838, "^he^ writes,  "the  prophet  Joe 


10  UTHE   MORMON  PROPHETS   TRAGEDY.*' 

Smith  seems  to  have  adopted  that  fascinating  theory 
4 that  all  pretty  women  have  the  right  to  charm  us, 
and  the  wife's  claim  of  mere  priority  should  not  in- 
jure the  just  pretensions  of  others  to  our  admira- 
tion.' Joseph  never  read  Moliere, — nor  anybody 
else, — and  so  he  did  not  copy  either  the  language  or 
manner  of  the  irresistible  Signor  Tenorio.  His  lov- 
er's mood  was  'more  condoling',  but  not  less  effect- 
ive for  the  flavor  of  cant  there  was  in  it.  His  weap- 
ons were  direct  revelations  and  promises  of  mansions 
in  the  sky.  His  wooing  prospered  in  spite  of  the 
buxom  and  protesting  Emma,  his  lawful  wife,  who 
exhibited  a  natural  though  purely  eclectic  scepticism 
in  regard  to  those  special  revelations." 

And  with  this  precious  piece  of  scandal  for  a 
prelude,  the  " Tragedy"  opens.  Then  follows  an 
equally  showy  and  even  more  defamatory  declara- 
tion: 

"In  the  spring  of  1844,  in  Nauvoo,  the  prophet 
saw  the  wife  of  Doctor  Foster,  admired  her,  and,  led 
by  his  evil  genius,  marched  to  conquest  and  found 
defeat.  Her  reception  of  him  was  what  Jomini 
would  call  *  defensive,  with  offensive  return.'  She 
supplemented  Lucre tia  with  Xantippe,  and  her  hus- 
band, the  doctor,  found  that  something  must  be 
done.  He  talked  the  thing  over  with  Mr.  Law, whose 
placens  uxor*  had  received  and  declined  the  same 
saintly  overtures,  and  they  came  to  the  eminently 


*  Good  wife.  (The  footnotes  herein  are  no  part  of  the  original 
article.) 


"THE  MOKMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY."          11 

American  conclusion  that  the  light  should  be  turned 
upon  such  an  iniquity.  They  bought  press  and 
types,  and  appealed  to  that  court  of  final  resort  for 
all  Anglo-Saxon  blood,— printer's  ink." 

Allusion  is  here  made  to  the  founding  of  the 
paper  called  the  "Nauvoo  Expositor,"  concerning 
which  and  the  other  matters  mentioned  in  this  some- 
what pedantic  presentation,  more  will  be  said  here- 
after. 

A  BLUNTED  AREOW. 

The  would-be- witty  dart  that  " Joseph  never 
read  Moliere, — nor  anybody  else,"  falls  to  the  ground 
from  a  shield  of  well  known  facts  covering  the  ob- 
ject of  this  cynical  attack.  I  am  in  a  position  to 
inform  the  uninformed — of  which  class  our  cultured 
author  seems  to  have  been  a  most  conspicuous  ex- 
ample so  far  as  Mormon  subjects  are  concerned 
—that  Joseph  Smith,  although  he  had  begun  his 
career,  like  other  great  Americans,  an  illiterate 
boy,  was  nevertheless  a  lover  of  learning,  and  as  a 
man  had  become  a  founder  of  schools  in  Ohio,  in 
Missouri,  and  in  Illinois.  He  had  read  much,  and 
was  well  versed  in  history,  theology,  languages,  law, 
and  even  poetry.  He  was  likewise  a  patron  of  the 
drama,  and  though  he  may  never  have  "read  Mo- 
liere," it  was  not  because  he  was  unwilling  to  read, 
but  because  he  had  healthier  literature  with  which  to 
store  his  mind.  "Seek  ye  out  of  the  best  books 
words  of  wisdom;  seek  learning  even  by  study  and 
also  by  faith,"  was  the  Prophet's  injunction  to  his- 


12  "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY." 

people.  He  taught  that  "the  glory  of  God  is  intelli- 
gence;" that  "a  man  is  saved  no  faster  than  he  gets 
knowledge;"  and  that  those  who  attain  to  most 
intelligence  in  this  life  will  have  just  that  much  the  ad- 
vantage in  the  world  to  come.  Joseph  Smith  was  a 
thorough  scriptorian ;  he  knew  the  Bible  from  begin- 
ning to  end,  and  profited  by  his  reading  of  it.  He 
was  naturally  merciful  and  magnanimous,  and  did 
not  bear  false  witness  against  his  neighbor.  Colonel 
Hay  thus  continues: 

"LIARS  AND  HYPOCRITES." 

"Mr.  Hep  worth  Dixon,  who  has  the  convenient 
faculty  of  believing  everything  that  is  picturesque, 
and  rejecting  unmanageable  evidence  with  an  airy 
tant  pis  pour  les  fails,*  represents  the  system  of  po- 
lygamy as  an  emanation  of  the  political  genius  of 
Brigham  Young,  invented  as  a  means  of  government, 
and  accepted  with  blind  faith  by  the  pure-minded 
elders  of  Utah.  He  says:  'Who  shall  say  they  are 
insincere?  Young  told  me  that  in  the  early  days  of 
this  strange  institution  he  was  much  opposed  to 
plural  households,  and  I  am  confident  that  he  speaks 
the  truth.  Among  the  Mormon  presidents  and  apos- 
tles, we  have  not  seen  one  face  on  which  liar  and 
hypocrite  were  written.  Though  we  daily  meet  with 
fanatics,  we  have  not  seen  a  single  man  whom  we 
can  call  a  rogue.'  It  is  inconsistent  with  Mr.  Dix- 
on's  theory  of  Smith's  mystic  fanaticism  to  admit 

*  So  much  the  worse  for  the  facts. 


"THE^MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY.  "          13 

the  stories  of  his  robust  profligacy.  So  he  simply 
denies  them.  But  no  fact  is  more  notorious  than  that 
Smith's  daily  life  had  established  polygamy  in  Nauvoo 
long  before  Bigdon  had  invented  his  jargon  of  spir- 
itual wives,  or  Hiram  received  his  revelation  to  jus- 
tify it.  The  elders  of  the  Church,  Brigham  and 
others,  clamored  rebelliously  against  the  prophet's 
exclusive  license,  and  together  they  began  cautiously 
to  lay  the  foundation  of  the  new  doctrine,  which, 
properly  arranged,  should  prove  a  strength  in- 
stead of  weakness  to  the  Church.  Begging  Mr. 
Dixon's  pardon, — they  were  'liars  and  hypocrites.'  In 
the  great  hierarchy  at  Nauvoo  there  were  no  fanatics ; 
the  flocks  were  sheep,  but  the  keepers  were  wolves. 
This  doctrine  of  spiritual  wives  was  the  result,  not 
the  cause,  of  the  lewd  lives  of  Smith,  Young  and 
their  fellow  blackguards,  and  was  invented  to  justify 
the  immoralities  which  the  ignorance  and  credulity 
of  their  female  worshipers  rendered  so  easy,  to 
serve  in  the  future  as  a  bait  for  the  rascal  few,  and 
to  blind  the  eyes  of  the  honest  and  stupid  mass." 

Begging  nobody's  pardon,!  denounce  as  wickedly 
and  totally  false  what  is  here  said  of  Joseph  Smith, 
Brigham  Young  and  their  associates.  Happily  for 
some  men — thanks  to  "Mormonism,"  which  they 
so  hate  and  villify — there  is  a  chance  for  repent- 
ance beyond  the  grave.  The  only  thing  that 
saves  the  author  of  "The  Mormon  Prophet's 
Tragedy"  from  the  full  condemnation  to  be  vis- 
ited upon  those  who  "love  and  make  a  lie," 
is  the  fact  that  this  particular  lie  was  made 


14      UTHE  MORMON  PROPHET *S  TRAGEDY. " 

long  before  he  uttered  it.  He  had  no  personal 
knowledge  of  the  matter.  He  was  imposed  upon  by 
second-hand  dealers  in  falsehoods  manufactured  by 
such  foul  and  corrupt  characters  as  John  C.  Bennett, 
who,  in  May,  1842,  was  expelled  from  the  Mormon 
Church  for  his  adulteries  and  rascalities.  John  Hay 
repeats  John  C.  Bennett's  falsehoods,  and  those  of 
others  almost  equally  untrustworthy.  Let  him  answer 
at  the  Judgment  Seat  whether  he  repeated  them  be- 
cause he  loved  them.  A  man  who  could  deliberately, 
upon  such  testimony,  defame  the  good  and  great, 
brand  them  as  "liars  and  hypocrites,"  and  in  the 
same  breath  refer  to  their  red-handed  murderers  as 
''good  citizens,  educated  and  irreproachable,"  living 
to  "enjoy  the  respect  and  esteem  of  all  who  know 
them,"  will  have  something  to  answer  for  at  the 
righteous  tribunal  of  a  just  God. 

In  reply  to  his  reply  to  Hep  worth  Dixon, 
who  visited  Brigham  Young  in  Utah,  and  mingled 
freely  with  the  Mormon  leaders  and  their  follow- 
ers, not  contenting  himself  with  the  malicious  tales 
told  by  their  religious  and  political  enemies,  I  have 
simply  this  to  say:  "Liars  and  hypocrites"  do 
not  lay  down  their  lives,  as  did  Joseph  and  Hy- 
rum  Smith,  for  their  convictions;  "profligates,"  ro- 
bust or  otherwise,  do  not  make  the  sacrifices  made 
by  Brigham  Young  and  his  fellow  pilgrims  into  a 
savage  wilderness,  a  desert  transformed  into  an 
Eden  by  their  moral  and  frugal  industry.  The  Mor- 
mon leaders,  no  less  than  the  Mormon  people, 
have  proved  beyond  all  cavil,  to  every  honest  and 


UTHE''MOEMON  PEOPHET'S  TEAGEDY."          15 

unprejudiced  mind,  their  absolute  sincerity.  They 
may  have  had  their  faults,  but  these  were  fewer  and 
far  less  serious  than  those  of  their  calumniators.  They 
never  slandered  the  dead,  never  justified  the  murder 
of  the  innocent.  Joseph  Smith  was  not  of  that  self- 
seeking,  calculating  class  who  pander  to  the  passions 
of  the  mob.  He  braved  public  opinion,  stemming 
the  stiff  current  of  prejudice,  and  never  drifting  with 
the  tide. 

"Count  me  o'er  earth's  chosen  heroes, — 

They  were  souls  who  stood  alone, 
While  the  men  they  agonized  for, 

Hurled  the  contumelious  stone; 
Stood  serene,  and  down  the  future 

Saw  the  golden  beam  incline 
To  the  side  of  perfect  justice, 

Mastered  by  their  faith  divine, 
By  one  man's  plain  truth  to  manhood 

And  to  God's  supreme  design." 

HOW  JOSEPH   SMITH   IMPKESSED   MEN. 

Hepworth  Dixon  was  not  the  only  fair-minded 
Gentile  who  saw  something  to  commend  in  the  Mor- 
mon people  and  their  leaders.  Here  are  a  few  un- 
solicited testimonials,  selected  from  many  of  the 
same  sort,  which  show  how  Joseph  Smith  impressed 
honest  men  with  whom  he  came  in  contact. 

A  member  of  Congress,  after  meeting  him  in  the 
City  of  Washington,  whither  he  went  in  1839,  to  petition 
the  general  government  for  redress  of  grievances  grow- 
ing out  of  the  wrongs  suffered  by  him  and  his  peo- 
ple in  Missouri,  wrote  thus  respecting  the  Prophet : 


16  "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S: TRAGEDY.*' 

"Everything  he  says  is  said  in  a  manner  to  leave 
an  impression  that  he  is  sincere.  There  is  no  levity, 
no  fanaticism,  no  want  of  dignity  in  his  deportment. 
He  is  apparently  from  forty  to  forty-five  years  of 
age  [Joseph  was  then  about  thirty- four] ,  rather 
above  middle  stature,  and  what  the  ladies  would  call 
a  very  good-looking  man.  In  his  garb  there  are  no 
peculiarities,  his  dress  being  that  of  a  plain,  unpre- 
tending citizen.  He  is  by  profession  a  farmer,  but 
is  evidently  well  read.  *  Throughout  his 

whole  address  he  displayed  strongly  a  spirit  of  char- 
ity and  forbearance." 

Joseph  Smith  was  a  free  mason,  and  the  Masonic 
Grand  Master,  in  Illinois,  wrote  of  him  to  the 
"Advocate"  as  follows: 

"Having  recently  had  occasion  to  visit  the  City 
of  Nauvoo,  I  cannot  permit  the  opportunity  to  pass 
without  expressing  the  agreeable  disappointment  that 
awaited  me  there.  I  had  supposed,  from  what  I  had 
previously  heard,  that  I  should  witness  an  impover- 
ished, ignorant  and  bigoted  population,  completely 
priest-ridden  and  tyrannized  over  by  Joseph  Smith, 
the  great  prophet  of  these  people. 

"On  the  contrary,  to  my  surprise,  I  saw  a  peo- 
ple apparently  happy,  prosperous  and  intelligent. 
Every  man  appeared  to  be  employed  in  some  busi- 
ness or  occupation.  I  saw  no  idleness,  no  intemper- 
ance, no  noise,  no  riot;  all  appeared  to  be  contented, 
with  no  desire  to  trouble  themselves  with  anything 
except  their  own  affairs.  With  the  religion  of  this 
people  I  have  nothing  to  do;  if  they  can  be  satisfied 


"THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY."          17 

with  the  doctrines  of  their  new  revelation,  they  have 
a  right  to  be  so.  The  constitution  of  the  country 
guarantees  to  them  the  right  of  worshiping  God  ac- 
cording to  the  dictates  of  their  own  conscience,  and 
if  they  can  be  so  easily  satisfied,  why  should  we,  who 
differ  with  them,  complain?  *  *  * 

"During  my  stay  of  three  days  I  became  well 
acquainted  with  their  principal  men,  and  more  par- 
ticularly with  their  Prophet.  I  found  them  hospit- 
able, polite,  well- informed  and  liberal.  With  Joseph 
Smith,  the  hospitality  of  whose  house  I  kindly  re- 
ceived, I  was  well  pleased.  Of  course,  on  the  sub- 
ject of  religion  we  widely  differed,  but  he  appeared 
to  be  quite  as  willing  to  permit  me  to  enjoy  my  right 
of  opinion  as  I  think  we  all  ought  to  be  to  let  the 
Mormons  enjoy  theirs.  But  instead  of  the  ignorant 
and  tyrannical  upstart,  judge  my  surprise  at  finding 
him  a  sensible,  intelligent  companion  and  gentle- 
manly man.  In  frequent  conversations  with  him  he 
gave  me  every  information  that  I  desired,  and  ap- 
peared to  be  only  pleased  at  beiDg  able  to  do  so.  He 
appears  to  be  much  respected  by  all  the  people  about 
him,  and  has  their  entire  confidence.77 

A  Methodist  preacher  named  Prior,  who  visited 
Nauvoo  to  hear  a  Sabbath  sermon  by  tho  Prophet, 
recorded  the  result  in  these  words: 

"I  will  not  attempt  to  describe  the  various  feel- 
ings of  my  bosom  as  I  took  my  seat  in  a  conspicu- 
ous place  in  the  congregation,  who  were  waiting  in 
breathless  silence  for  his  appearance.  While  he  tar- 
ried, I  had  plenty  of  time  to  revolve  in  my  mind  the 


18  "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY. " 

character  and  common  report  of  that  truly  singular 
personage.  I  fancied  that  I  should  behold  a  count- 
enance sad  and  sorrowful,  yet  containing  the  fiery 
marks  of  rage  and  exasperation.  I  supposed  that  I 
should  be  enabled  to  discover  in  him  some  of  those 
thoughtful  and  reserved  features,  those  mystic  and 
sarcastic  glances,  which  I  had  fancied  the  ancient 
sages  to  possess.  I  expected  to  see  that  fearful, 
faltering  look  of  conscious  shame  which,  from  what  I 
had  heard  of  him,  he  might  be  expected  to  evince. 
He  appeared  at  last;  but  how  was  I  disappointed 
when,  instead  of  the  heads  and  horns  of  the  beast 
and  false  prophet,  I  beheld  only  the  appearance  of  a 
common  man,  of  tolerably  large  proportions.  I  was 
sadly  disappointed,  and  thought  that  although  his 
appearance  could  not  be  wrested  to  indicate  anything 
against  him,  yet  he  would  manifest  all  I  had  heard 
of  him,  when  he  began  to  preach.  I  sat  uneasily, 
and  watched  him  closely.  He  commenced  preach- 
ing, not  from  the  Book  of  Mormon,  however,  but 
from  the  Bible ;  the  first  chapter  of  the  first  of  Peter 
was  his  text.  He  commenced  calmly,  and  continued 
dispassionately  to  pursue  his  subject,  while  I  sat  in 
breathless  silence,  waiting  to  hear  that  foul  aspersion 
of  the  other  sects,  that  diabolical  disposition  of  re- 
venge, and  to  hear  that  rancorous  denunciation  of 
every  individual  but  a  Mormon.  I  waited  in  vain;  1 
listened  with  surprise ;  I  sat  uneasy  in  my  seat,  and 
could  hardly  persuade  myself  but  that  he  had  been 
apprised  of  my  presence,  and  so  ordered  his  dis- 
course on  my  account,  that  I  might  not  be  able  to 


UTHE   MOKMON   PKOPHET'S    TKAGEDY."  19 

find  fault  with  it;  for  instead  of  a  jumbled  jargon  of 
half-connected  sentences,  and  a  volley  of  impreca- 
tions, and  diabolical  and  malignant  denunciations, 
heaped  upon  the  heads  of  all  who  differed  from  him, 
and  the  dreadful  twisting  and  wresting  of  the  Scrip- 
tures to  suit  his  own  particular  views,  and  attempt 
to  weave  a  web  of  dark  and  mystic  sophistry  around 
the  gospel  truths,  which  I  had  anticipated,  he  glided 
along  through  a  very  interesting  and  elaborate  dis- 
course, with  all  the  care  and  happy  facility  of  one 
who  was  well  aware  of  his  important  station,  and  his 
duty  to  God  and  man." 

An  English  traveler,  who  visited  Nauvoo  in 
1843,  had  this  to  say  in  the  course  of  a  newspaper 
letter  widely  copied  at  the  time: 

" Joseph  Smith,  the  Mormon  Prophet,  is  a  sing- 
ular character;  he  lives  at  the  i Nauvoo  Mansion 
House,'  which  is,  I  understand,  intended  to  become 
a  home  for  the  stranger  and  traveler,  and  I  think, 
from  my  own  personal  observation,  that  it  will  be 
deserving  of  the  name.  The  Prophet  is  a  kind, 
cheerful,  sociable  companion.  I  believe  that  he  has 
the  good- will  of  the  community  at  large,  and  that  he 
is  ever  ready  to  stand  by  and  defend  them  in  any 
extremity ;  and  as  I  saw  the  Prophet  and  his  brother 
Hyruin  conversing  together  one  day,  I  thought  I  be- 
held two  of  the  greatest  men  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. I  have  witnessed  the  Mormons  in  their  assem- 
blies on  a  Sunday,  and  I  know  not  where  a  similar 
scene  could  be  effected  or  produced.  With  respect 
to  the  teachings  of  the  Prophet,  I  must  say  that  there 


20  "THE  MOBMON  PEOPHET'S  TEAGED\." 

are  some  things  hard  to  be  understood:  but  he  invar- 
iably supports  himself  from  our  good  old  Bible. 
Peace  and  harmony  reign  in  the  city.  The  drunkard 
is  scarcely  ever  seen,  as  in  other  cities,  neither  does 
the  awful  imprecation  or  profane  oath  strike  upon 
your  ear,  but,  while  all  is  storm  and  tempest  and 
confusion  abroad  respecting  the  Mormons,  all  is 
peace  and  harmony  at  home." 

But  John  Hay  saw  nothing  of  this.  A  mere 
child  when  the  Prophet  was  murdered,  he  was  still 
but  an  urchin  when  the  Mormon  community,  ex- 
pelled from  Illinois,  made  its  enforced  pilgrimage 
to  the  Rocky  Mountains.  True,  he  once  lived  at 
Warsaw,  from  which  town  the  mob  went  forth  that 
murdered  the  helpless  prisoners  in  Carthage  jail; 
but  he  was  then  le,-s  than  six  years  old,  having  been 
born  October  8,  1838,  at  Salem,  Indiana.  All 
that  he  knew  about  the  Mormons,  or  cared  to  re- 
member and  reproduce  concerning  them,  were  the 
stories  told  or  written  by  their  enemies.  As  a  youth 
he  studied  law  at  Springfield,  the  capital  of  Illinois, 
and  it  was  there,  in  all  probability,  that  he  formed 
the  acquaintance  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  future 
President,  whose  private  secretary  he  became  duiing 
the  period  of  the  Civil  War.  A  pity  he  could  not  have 
imbibed,  through  close  association  with  that  great 
man,  some  of  his  innate  charity.  Lincoln  was  never 
unfriendly  to  the  Mormons,  nor  to  any  other  people. 

It  is  plainly  apparent  that  Mr.  Hay,  when  he 
prepared  his  article  for  the  " Atlantic  Monthly,"  had 
little  .or  no  use  for  the  records  in  the  case,  except 


"THE  MOKMON  PROPHET >s  TRAGEDY. "          21 

such  as  were  unfavorable  to  the  objects  of  his  criticism, 
and  some  of  those  he  failed  to  interpret  aright.  He  has 
scarcely  a  sentence  that  does  not  contain  some  inac- 
curacy. His  prejudice  against  everything  Mormon, 
and  his  sympathy  with  everything  an ti- Mormon, 
makes  him  a  most  unreliable  historian.  The  article 
was  intended  to  be  " well- written ;"  one  need  not  read 
two  lines  of  it  in  order  to  feel  that  the  author's  mind 
was  less  upon  what  he  was  saying  than  upon  how  he 
was  saying  it;  a  practice  as  fatal  in  literature  as  in 
oratory.  Well  written  it  might  have  been, — Mr.  Hay 
wielded  a  master  pen, — had  he  chosen  a  more  appro- 
priate theme  upon  which  to  vent  his  ill-timed  satire. 
While  perfectly  familiar  with  the  spirit  and  tac- 
tics of  those  who  deem  it  their  mission  to  destroy  or 
injure  Mormonism;  well  acquainted  as  I  am  with 
their  stock  arguments,  and  with  the  blunders  that 
they  commonly  commit,  I  must  confess  to  my 
surprise,  almost  wonderment,  at  the  following  state- 
ment made  by  Mr.  Hay  in  the  course  of  his  answer  to 
Hepworth  Dixon: 

POLYGAMY,  OR  THE  USPIBITUAL  WIFE"  DOCTEINE. 

"No  fact  is  more  notorious  than  that  Smith's 
daily  life  had  established  polygamy  in  Nauvoo  long 
before  Bigdon  had  invented  his  jargon  of  spiritual 
wives,  or  Hiram  received  his  revelation  to  justify 
it.  *  *  *  In  all  Smith's  curious  history  there  is 
no  fact  more  clearly  established  than  this  effort  to 
legalize  and  consecrate  his  immoral  life.  It  formed 


22  "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY." 

the  first  link  of  that  chain  of  circumstances  which 
within  a  few  days  dragged  him  to  his  doom." 

And  nowhere,  Mr.  Hay,  in  all  your  curious  com- 
ment upon  that  history,  is  your  ignorance  of  Mor- 
monism  and  the  Mormons  more  clearly  shown.  Not 
content  with  taking  the  untenable  ground  that  the 
doctrine  of  plural  marriage  —  uthe  jargon  of  spiritual 
wives" — was  introduced  into  the  Church  to  conse- 
crate the  immoralities  of  its  leaders,  you  make  the 
astounding  assertion  that  Sidney  Rigdon  invented 
it,  and  that  Hyrum  Smith  received  the  revelation  to 
justify  it.  All  of  which  is  stupidly  and  ridiculously 
false.  The  revelation  on  plural  marriage  came 
through  the  Prophet,  Seer  and  Eevelator  at  the 
head  of  the  Church — Joseph  Smith,  Jr.,  the  original 
teacher  of  this  doctrine.  Sidney  Rigdon  had 
nothing  to  do  with  it,  any  more  than  he  had  to  do 
with  the  origin  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  which  he 
was  accused  of  writing,  but  in  reality  never  saw 
until  six  months  after  its  publication.  Moreover, 
he  was  one  of  the  recalcitrants  who  refused  to  re- 
ceive the  plural- wife  doctrine.  How  dare  anyone 
having  the  least  regard  for  his  literary  or  historical 
reputation  be  so  reckless  as  to  assert  that  Sidney  Rig- 
don was  the  author  of  it? 

Let  some  friend  of  Mr.  Hay's  answer,  if  he  can, 
the  following  statement  by  Sidney  Rigdon  himself, 
contained  in  a  communication  to  the  "Messenger 
and  Advocate,"  published  at  Greencastle,  Pennsyl- 
vania, in  June,  1846.  Speaking  of  the  exiled  Mor- 
mons, who  were  then  on  the  Iowa  frontier,  moving 


UTHE   MORMON   PROPHET 's   TRAGEDY."  23 

westward  under  the  leadership  of  President  Brigham 
Young,  Mr.  Rigdon  says: 

"We  are  well  aware  that  the  leaders  of  this 
people  introduced  many  corruptions  among  them. 

*  *     *     They  introduced  a  base  system  of  polyg- 
amy.    *     *     *     This  system  of  corruption  brought 
a  train  of  evils  with  it,  which  has  terminated  in  their 
entire  ruin.     *     *     *     This   system  was  introduced 
by  .the  Smiths  some  time  before  their  death,  and  was 
the  thing  which   put  them  into   the  power  of  their 
enemies,  and  was  the  immediate  cause  of  their  death. 

*  *     *     We  warned  Joseph   Smith   and   his  family 
of  the  ruin  that  was  coming  on  them,  and  of  the  cer- 
tain destruction  which  awaited  them  for  their  in- 
iquity.    *     *     *     From  them  we  received  like  treat- 
ment as  we  did  from  the  Twelve  and  their  followers. 

*  *     *     The  Smiths  have  fallen  before  their  ene- 
enemies,  as   the  Lord   said  they  would,    and  their 
families  are  sunk  into   everlasting  shame    and  dis- 
grace, until  their  very  name  is  a  reproach;  and  must 
remain  so  for  ever." 

Does  this  sound  as  if  Sidney  Eigdom  was  in 
sympathy  with  plural  marriage;  that  he  was  the  ^in- 
ventor" of  the  " jargon  of  spiritual  wives?" 

Equally  preposterous  is  the  assertion  that  Hy- 
rum  Smith  received  the  revelation  justifying  the 
practice  of  plural  marriage.  Every  boy  in  Utah 
knows  that  it  was  Joseph  Smith,  not  Hyrum  Smith, 
nor  any  other  of  the  Prophet's  subordinates,  who 
claimed  to  have  received  from  God  the  revelation 
justifying,  or  rather,  authorizing  that  practice.  Every 


24  UTHE   MORMON   PROPHET *S   TRAGEDY." 

tyro  in  the  study  of  Mormonism  knows  this  to  be  the 
channel  through  which  it  would  have  to  come  in  order 
to  commend  it  to  the  Latter-day  Saints  as  a  divine 
revelation.  So  sacredly  guarded  is  the  right  to  re- 
ceive revelations  for  the  guidance  of  the  Church,  that 
only  one  man  upon  the  earth,  at  a  time,  is  recognized 
as  holding  the  keys  of  such  communications.  That 
man,  at  the  time  of  which  I  write,  was  Joseph  Smith, 
not  Hyrum  Smith,  not  Sidney  Rigdon,  nor  any  other 
person.  But  John  Hay,  blinded  by  prejudice  or  mis- 
led by  false  information,  attempts  to  account  for 
polygamy  in  his  own  way. 

"In  the  year  1844, "  he  says,  "the  attempt  was 
made  to  ingraft  this  abomination  upon  the  creed  of 
the  Church.  The  affidavits  of  William  Law  and 
his  wife  and  of  Austin  Cowles,  published  in  the 
4 Expositor,'  established  the  fact  that  Hiram  Smith 
had  read  to  them  a  pretended  revelation  of  the 
dogma  of  "a  plurality  of  wives,"  and  *  *  * 
in  the  case  of  Sister  Law,  the  revelation  was 
strengthened  by  the  assurances  of  damnation  to  any 
woman  who  objected  to  her  husband's  embracing 
the  new  doctrine. 

"It  is  true  that  Joe  Smith,  after  the  publication 
of  these  affidavits,  took  fright  at  the  storm  of  disgust 
they  produced,  and  desisted  from  the  attempt  to  in- 
culcate the  new  doctrine.  But  he  never  distinctly 
denied  the  authenticity  of  the  revelation.  On  the 
contrary,  during  one  of  those  singular  trials  in  his 
own  municipal  court,  he  stated  squarely,  'Brother 


UTHE  MORMON  PROPHET *S  TRAGEDY. "      25 

Hiram  is  a  prophet  of  the  Lord;  and  when  the  Lord 
speaks  let  the  earth  tremble,' ' 

Let  me  lead  our  author  out  of  the  maze  in  which 
he  is  wandering,  and  put  the  reader  in  possession  of 
the  facts.  The  revelation  read  by  Hyrum  Smith  to 
William  Law  and  Austin  Cowles,  and  referred  to  in 
their  affidavits  printed  in  the  " Expositor,"  was  the 
revelation  received  and  originally  uttered  by  Joseph 
Smith,  commanding  him  and  those  to  whom  he 
should  communicate  the  principle  of  plural  marriage 
to  practice  it  under  penalty  of  damnation.  This 
reading  of  the  document  took  place  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  High  Council,  of  which  body  Austin 
Cowles  was  a  member ;  William  Law  being  at  the  same 
time  one  of  the  First  Presidency  of  the  Church.  The 
inference  drawn  by  Mr.  Hay  that  the  revelation  had 
been  "received"  by  Hyrum  Smith,  that  he  was  the 
source  or  original  oracle  of  the  same,  is  not  warranted 
even  by  the  wording  of  the  affidavits  he  cites.  It  is 
simply  a  jumped-at  conclusion — purely  an  invention 
of  his  own.  As  to  what  the  revelation  contained, there 
need  be  no  quibble.  Let  it  speak  for  itself.  Here  it 
is  in  extenso: 

SECTION  132,  DOCTRINE  AND  COVENANTS. 

Revelation  on  the  Eternity  of  the  Marriage  Covenant,  including 
Plurality  of  Wives.  Given  through  Joseph  the  Seer,  in  Nau- 
voo,  Hancock  County,  Illinois,  July  13th,  1843. 

1.  Verily,  thus  saith  the  Lord  unto  you,  my  servant  Joseph, 
that  inasmuch  as  you  have  inquired  of  my  hand,  to  know  and  un- 
derstand wherein  I,  the  Lord,  justified  my  servants  Abraham, 


26          "THE  MOEMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY." 

Isaac  and  Jacob;  as  also  Moses,  David  and  Solomon,  my  servants, 
as  touching  the  principle  and  doctrine  of  their  having  many  wives 
and  concubines: 

2.  Behold!   and  lo,  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  will  answer 
thee  as  touching  this  matter: 

3.  Therefore,  prepare  thy  heart  to  receive  and  obey  the  in- 
structions which  I  am  about  to  give  unto  you ;   for  all  those  who 
have  this  law  revealed  unto  them  must  obey  the  same; 

4.  For  behold!  I  reveal  unto  you  a  new  and  an  everlasting 
covenant;  and  if  ye  abide  not  that  covenant,  then  are  ye  damned; 
for  no  one  can  reject  this  covenant,  and  be  permitted  to  enter  into 
my  glory; 

5.  For  all  who  will  have  a  blessing  at  my  hands,  shall  abide 
the  law  which  was  appointed  for  that  blessing,  and  the  conditions 
thereof,  as  were  instituted   from  before  the  foundation  of  the 
world : 

6.  And  as  pertaining  to  the   new  and  everlasting  covenant, 
it  was  instituted  for  the  fullness  of  my  glory;  and  he  that  receiv- 
eth  a  fullness  thereof,  must  and  shall   abide  the   law,  or  he  shall 
be  damned,  saith  the  Lord  God. 

7.  And  verily  I  say  unto  you,  that  the  conditions  of  this  law 
are   these:  All  covenants,  contracts,    bonds,  obligations,  oaths, 
vows,  performances,  connections,   associations,  or   expectations, 
that  are  not  made, and  entered  into,  and  sealed  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
of  promise,  of  him  who  is  anointed,  both  as  well  for  time  and  for 
all  eternity,  and  that  too  most  holy,  by  revelation  and  command- 
ment through  the  medium  of  mine   anointed,  whom  I   have  ap- 
pointed on  the  earth  to  hold  this  power,   (and  I   have  appointed 
unto  my  servant  Joseph  to  hold  this  power  in  the   last  days,  and 
there  is  never  but  one  on  the  earth  at  a  time,  on  whom  this  power 
and  the  keys  of  this  Priesthood  are  conferred,)  are  of  no  efficacy, 
virtue  or  force,  in   and  after  the  resurrection  from  the  dead;  for 
all  contracts  that  are  not  made  unto  this  end,  have  an  end  when 
men  are  dead. 

8.  Behold!   mine  house   is  a  house  of  order,  saith  the  Lord 
God,  and  not  a  house  of  confusion. 


UTHE   MORMON   PKOPHET*S   TKAGEDY."  27 

9.  Will  I  accept  of    an  offering,  saith  the  Lord,   that  is   not 
made  in  my  name ! 

10.  Or,  will  I  receive  at  your  hands  that  which  I  have  not  ap- 
pointed ! 

11.  And  will  I  appoint  unto  you,  saith  the  Lord,  except  it 
be  by  law,  even  as  I  and  my  Father  ordained  unto  you,  before  the 
world  was! 

12.  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God,   and   I  give  unto  you  this  com- 
mandment, that  no  man   shall  come  unto  the  Father  but  by  me, 
or  by  my  word,  which  is  my  law,  saith  the  Lord; 

13.  And   everything  that    is    in   the   world,  whether   it  be 
ordained  of  men,  by  thrones, or  principalities,  or  powers,  or  things 
of  name,  whatsoever  they  may  be,  that  are  not  by  me,  or  by  my 
word,  saith  the  Lord,  shall  be  thrown  down,  and  shall  not  remain 
after  men  are  dead,  neither  in  nor  after  the  resurrection,  saith  the 
Lord  your  God; 

14.  For  whatsoever  things  remain, are  by  me;  and  whatsoever 
thing  are  not  by  me,  shall  be  shaken  and  destroyed. 

15.  Therefore,  if  a  man  marry  him  a  wife  in  the  world,  and 
he  marry  her  not  by  me,  nor  by  my  word;  and   he  covenant  with 
her  so  long  as  he  is  in  the  world,  and  she  with  him,  their  coven- 
ant and  marriage  are  not  of  force  when  they  are  dead,  and  when 
they  are  out  of  the  world;  therefore,  they  are  not  bound  by  any 
law  when  they  are  out  of  the  world. 

16.  Therefore,  when  they  are  out  of  the  world,  they  neither 
marry,  nor  are  given  in  marriage;    but   are   appointed  angels  in 
heaven,  which  angels   are   ministeiing  servants,  to  minister  for 
those  who  are  worthy  of   a  far  more,  'and  an  exceeding,  and  an 
eternal  weight  of  glory; 

17.  For  these  angels  did  not   abide   my  law,  therefore  they 
cannot  be  enlarged,  but  remain  separately   and  singly,  without 
exaltation,  in   their   saved   condition,  to   all   eternity,  and   from 
henceforth  are   not  gods,  but  are   angels   of   God,  for  ever  and 
ever. 

18.  And  again,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  if  a  man  marry  a  wife, 
and  make  a  covenant  with  her  for  time  and  for  all  eternity,  if 
that  covenant  is  not  by  me,   or  by  my  word,  which  is  my  law, 


28  "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY." 

and  is  not  sealed  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  promise,  through  him  whom 
I  have  anointed  and  appointed  unto  this  power — then  it  is  not 
valid,  neither  of  force  when  they  are  out  of  the  world,  because 
they  are  not  joined  by  me,  saith  the  Lord,  neither  by  my  word; 
when  they  are  out  of  the  world,  it  cannot  be  received  there,  be- 
cause the  angels  and  the  Gods  are  appointed  there,  by  whom 
they  cannot  pass;  they  cannot,  therefore,  inherit  my  glory,  for 
my  house  is  a  house  of  order,  saith  the  Lord  God. 

19.  And  again,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  if   a  man  marry  a  wife 
by  my  word,  which  is   my  law,  and   by  the  new  and  everlasting 
covenant,  and  it  is  sealed  unto  them   by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  prom- 
ise, by  him  who  is   anointed,   unto  whom  I  have  appointed  this 
power,  and  the  keys  of  this  Priesthood:  and  it  shall  be  said  unto 
them. ye  shall  come  forth  in  the  first  resurrection;  and  if  it  be  after 
the  first  resurrection,  in  the  next  resurrection;    and  shall  inherit 
thrones,   kingdoms,   principalities,   and   powers,  dominions,   all 
heights  and  depths — then  shall  it  be  written  in  the  Lamb's  Book 
of  Life,  that  he  shall   commit  no   murder  whereby  to  shed  inno- 
cent blood,  and  if  ye  abide  in  my  covenant,  and   commit  no  mur- 
der whereby  to  shed  innocent  blood,  it  shall   be  done  unto  them 
in   all  things  whatsoever  my  servant   hath   put  upon  them,  in 
time,   and  through  all   eternity,  and   shall  be  of  full  force  when 
they  are  out  of  the  world;  and  they  shall  pass  by  the  angels,  and 
the  Gods,  which  are  set  there,  to   their   exaltation  and  glory  in 
all  things,  as  hath  been  sealed  upon   their  heads,  which  glory 
shall  be  a  fullness  and  a  continuation  of  the  seeds  for  ever  and 
ever. 

20.  Then  shall   they  be  Gods,   because  they   have  no   end; 
therefore  shall  they  be  from  everlasting  to  everlasting,  because 
they  continue;  then  shall  they  be  above   all,  because  all  things 
are  subject  unto  them.     Then  shall  they   be  Gods,  because  they 
have  all  power,  and  the  angels  are  subject  unto  them, 

21.  Verily  verily,    I  say  unto  you,  except  ye  abide  my  law, 
ye  cannot  attain  to  this  glory. 

22.  For  strait  is  the  gate  and  narrow  the  way  that  leadeth 
unto  the  exaltation  and  continuation  of  the  lives,  and  few  there 


"THE  MOKMON  PROPHET'S  TKAGEDY."          29 

be  that  find  it,  because  ye  receive   me  not  in  the  world,  neither 
do  ye  know  me. 

23.  But  if  ye  receive  me   in  the  world,  then  shall  ye  know 
me,  and  shall  receive  your  exaltation,  that  where  I  am,   ye  shall 
be  also, 

24.  This  is  eternal  lives,  to  know  the  only  wise  and  true  God, 
and  Jesus  Christ,  whom  he  hath   sent.     I  am  he.     Receive  ye, 
therefore,  my  law. 

25.  Broad   is  the  gate,  and  wide  the  way  that  leadeth  to  the 
deaths,  and  many  there  are  that  go   in  thereat;   because  they  re- 
ceive me  not,  neither  do  they  abide  in  my  law. 

26.  Verily,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  if  a  man  marry  a  wife  ac- 
cording to  my  word,   and  they  are  sealed  by  the   Holy  Spirit  of 
promise,  according   to   mine   appointment,  and   he  or  she  shall 
commit  any  sin  or  transgression  of  the  new  and  everlasting  cov- 
enant whatever,  and  all  manner  of  blasphemies,  and  if  they  com- 
mit no  murder,  wherein  they  shed  innocent  blood — yet  they  shall 
come  forth  in  the  first  resurrection, and  enter  into  their  exaltation; 
but  they  shall  be  destroyed   in  the  flesh,  and  shall  be  delivered 
unto  the  bufferings  of   Satan  unto   the  day  of  redemption,  saith 
the  Lord  God. 

27.  The  blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  shall  not 
be  forgiven  in  the  world  nor  out  of  the  world,  is  in  that  ye  com- 
mit murder,  wherein  ye  shed  innocent  blood,  and  assent  unto  my 
death,  after  ye  have  received  my  new  and  everlasting  covenant, 
saith  the  Lord  God;   and  he  that  abideth  not   this  law,  can  in  no 
wise  enter  into  my  glory,  but  shall  be  damned,  saith  the  Lord. 

28.  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  will   give  unto  thee  the  law 
of  my  Holy  Priesthood,  as  was  ordained   by  me  and  my  Father, 
before  the  world  was. 

29.  Abraham  received   all  things,  whatsoever  he   received, 
by   revelation  and   commandment,  by  my  word,  saith  the  Lord, 
and  hath  entered  into  his  exaltation,  and  sitteth  upon  his  throne. 

30.  Abraham  received  promises   concerning  his  seed,  and  of 
the  fruit  of  his  loins, — from  whose  loins  ye  are,  namely,  my  ser- 
vant Joseph, — which  were  to  continue  so  long  as  they  were  in  the 
world;   and  as  touching  Abraham  and  his  seed,  out  of  the  world 


30  "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY." 

they  should  continue;  both  in  the  world  and  out  of  the  world 
should  they  continue  as  innumerable  as  the  stars;  or,  if  ye  were 
to  count  the  sand  upon  the  sea  shore,  ye  could  not  number  them. 

31.  This  promise  is  yours  also,  because  ye  are  of  Abraham, 
and  the  promise  was  made  unto  Abraham;  and   by  this  law  are 
the  continuation  of  the  works  of  my  Father,  wherein  he  glorifieth 
himself. 

32.  Go  ye,  therefore,  and  do  the  works  of  Abraham;  enter  ye 
into  my  law,  and  ye  shall  be  saved. 

33.  But  if  ye  enter  not  into  my  law  ye  cannot  receive  the 
promise  of  my  Father,  which  he  made  unto  Abraham. 

34.  God  commanded   Abraham,   and  Sarah  gave  Hagar  to 
Abraham  to  wife.     And  why  did  she  do  itf    Because  this  was  the 
law,  and  from  Hagar  sprang  many  people.     This,  therefore,  was 
fulfilling,  among  other  things,  the  promises, 

35.  Was  Abraham,  therefore,  under  condemnation?    Verily, 
I  say  unto  you,  Nay;  for  I,  the  Lord,  commanded  it. 

36.  Abraham  was  commanded   to  offer  his  son  Isaac;  never- 
theless, it  was  written,  Thou  shalt  not  kill.     Abraham,  however, 
did  not  refuse,  and  it  was  accounted  unto  him  for  righteousness. 

37.  Abraham    received    concubines,    and    they    bare    him 
children,  and  it  was  accounted   unto   him  for  righteousness,  be- 
cause they  were  given  unto  him, and  he  abode  in  my  law,  as  Isaac 
also,  and  Jacob  did  none  other  things  than  that  which  they  were 
commanded;  and  because  they  did  none  other  things  than  that 
which  they  were  commanded,  they  have  entered  into  their  exalt- 
ation, according  to  the  promises,  and   sit  upon  thrones,  and  are 
not  angels,  but  are  Gods. 

38.  David  also  received  many  wives  and  concubines,  as  also 
Solomon  and  Moses,  my  servants;    as   also  many  others  of  my 
servants,  from  the    beginning  of  creation  until  this  time;   and 
in  nothing  did  they  sin,  save  in  those  things  which  they  received 
not  of  me. 

^9,  David's  wives  and  concubines  were  given  unto  him,  of  me, 
by  the  hand  of  Nathan,  my  servant, and  others  of  the  prophets  who 
had  the  keys  of  this  power;  and  in  none  of  these  things  did  he 
sin  against  me,  save  in  the  case  of  Uriah  and  his  wife;  and, 


"THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY."          31 

therefore  he  hath  fallen  from  his  exaltation,  and  received  his  por- 
tion; and  he  shall  not  inherit  them  out  of  the  world;  for  I  gave 
them  unto  another,  saith  the  Lord. 

40.  I  am  the  Lord,  thy  God,  and  I  gave   unto  thee,  my  ser- 
vant Joseph,  an  appointment,  and  restore  all  things;   ask  what  ye 
will,  and  it  shall  be  given  unto  you,  according  to  my  word. 

41.  And   as    ye    have   asked    concerning   adultery — verily, 
verily   I  say  unto  you,  if  a  man  receiveth  a  wife  in  the  new  and 
everlasting  covenant,  and  if  she  be  with  another  man,  and  I  have 
not  appointed  unto  her  by  the  holy  anointing,  she  hath  committed 
adultery,  and  shall  be  destroyed. 

42.  If  she  be  not  in  the  new  and  everlasting  covenant,  and 
she  be  with  another  man,  she  has  committed  adultery. 

43.  And  if  her  husband  be  with  another  woman,  and  he  was 
under  a  vow,  he  hath  broken  his  vow,  and  hath  committed  adul- 
tery. 

44.  And  if  she  hath  not  committed  adultery,  but  is  innocent, 
and  hath  not  broken  her  vow,  and  she  knoweth  it,  and  I  reveal 
it  unto  you,  my  servant  Joseph,  then  shall   you  have  power,  by 
the  power  of  my  Holy  Priesthood,  to  take  her,  and  give  her  unto 
him  that  hath  not  committed  adultery,  but  hath  been  faithful;  for 
he  shall  be  made  ruler  over  many; 

45.  For  I  have  conferred  upon   you  the  keys  and  power  of 
the  Priesthood,  wherein   I   restore  all  things,  and  make   known 
unto  you  all  things  in  due  time. 

46.  And  verily,  verily  I  say  unto   you,  that  whatsoever  you 
seal  on  earth,  shall   be  sealed   in  heaven;    and   whatsoever  you 
bind  on  earth,  in  my  name,  and   by  my  word,  saith  the  Lord,  it 
shall  be  eternally  bound  in  the  heavens;  and  whosesoever   sins 
you  remit  on  earth  shall  be   remitted   eternally  in   the   heavens; 
and  whosesoever  sins   you  retain  on  earth,  shall  be  retained  in 
heaven. 

47.  And   again,  verily  I   say,  whomsoever  you   bless,  I  will 
bless,  and  whomsoever  you  curse,  I  will  curse,  saith  the  Lord;  for 
I,  the  Lord,  am  thy  God. 

48.  And  again,  verily   I   say  unto  you,  my   servant  Joseph, 
that  whatsoever  you  give  on  earth,  and  to  whomsoever  you  give 


32  "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY." 

any  one  on  earth,  by  my  word,  and  according  to  my  law,  it  shall 
be  visited  with  blessings,  and  not  cursings,  and  with  my  power, 
saith  the  Lord,  and  shall  be  without  condemnation  on  earth,  and 
in  heaven; 

49.  For  I  am  the  Lord,  thy  God,  and  will  be  with  thee  even 
unto  the  end  of  the  world,  and  through  all  eternity;  for  verily, 
I  seal  upon  you  your  exaltation,  and  prepare  a  throne  for  you  in 
the  kingdom  of  my  Father,  with  Abraham  your  father. 

50.  Behold,  I   have  seen  your  sacrifices,  and  will  forgive  all 
your  sins;  I  have  seen  your  sacrifices,  in  obedience  to  that  which 
I  have  told  you;   go,  therefore,  and   I  make  a  way  for  your  es- 
cape, as  I  accepted  the  offering  of  Abraham  of  his  son  Isaac. 

51.  Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  a  commandment  I  give  unto  mine 
handmaid,  Emma  Smith,  your  wife,  whom  I  have  given  unto  you, 
that  she  stay  herself,  and  partake  not  of  that  which  I  commanded 
you  to  offer  unto  her;  for  I   did  it,  saith  the  Lord,  to  prove  you 
all,  as  I  did  Abraham;  and  that  I   might  require   an  offering  at 
your  hands,  by  covenant  and  sacrifice; 

52.  And  let  my  handmaid,  Emma  Smith,  receive   all   those 
that  have  been  given  unto  my  servant  Joseph,  and  who  are  virtu- 
ous and  pure  before  me;   and  those  who  are  not  pure,  and  have 
said  they  were  pure,  shall  be  destroyed,  saith  the  Lord  God; 

53.  For  I  am  the  Lord,  thy  God,  and  ye  shall  obey  my  voice; 
and    I   give   unto    my  servant  Joseph,  that   he  shall   be  made 
ruler  over  many  things,  for  he  hath  been  faithful   over  a  few 
things,  and  from  henceforth  I  will  strengthen  him. 

54.  And  I  command  mine  handmaid,  Emma  Smith,  to  abide 
and  cleave  unto  my  servant  Joseph,  and  to  none  else.     But  if  she 
will  not  abide  this  commandment,  she  shall  be  destroyed,  saith 
the  Lord;  for  I  am  the  Lord   thy  God,  and   will   destroy  her,  if 
she  abide  not  in  my  law ; 

55.  But  if  she  will  not  abide  this  commandment,  then  shall 
my  servant  Joseph  do  all   things  for  her,  even  as   he  hath  said; 
and  I  will  bless  him  and  multiply  him  and  give  unto  him  an  hun- 
dred-fold  in  this  world,  of  fathers  and  mothers,  brothers  and  sis- 
ters, houses  and  lands,  wives  and  children,  and  crowns  of  eternal 
lives  in  the  eternal  worlds. 


"THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY.  "    33 

56.  And  again,  verily  I  say,   let  mine  handmaid  forgive  my 
servant  Josesph  his  trespasses,  and  then  shall  she  be  forgiven  her 
trespasses,  wherein  she   has   trespassed   against   me;  and  I,  the 
Lord,  thy  God,  will  bless  her,  and   multiply  her,  and  make  her 
heart  to  rejoice. 

57.  And   again,  I   say,  let  not  my  servant  Joseph  put  his 
property  out  of  his  hands,  lest  an  enemy  come  and  destroy  him; 
for  Satan  seeketh  to  destroy;  for  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  he 
is  my  servant;  and  behold!  and  lo!    I  am  with  him,  as   I  was 
with  Abraham  thy  father,  even  unto  his  exaltation  and  glory. 

58.  Now,  as  touching  the  law  of  the  Priesthood,  there  are 
many  things  pertaining  thereunto. 

59.  Verily,  if   a  man  be  called  of  my  Father,  as  was  Aaron, 
by  mine  own  voice,  and  by  the  voice  of  him  that  sent  me:  and  I 
have  endowed  him  with  the  keys  of  the  power  of  this  Priesthood, 
if  he  do  anything  in  my  name,  and  according  to   my  law,  and  by 
my  word,  he  will  not  commit  sin,  and  I  will  justify  him. 

60.  Let  no  one,  therefore,  set   on  my  servant  Joseph;  for  I 
will  justify  him;  for  he  shall  do  the   sacrifice  which  I  require  at 
his  hands,  for  his  trangressions,  saith  the  Lord  your  God. 

61.  And  again,  as  pertaining  to  the  law  of  the  Priesthood:  If 
any  man  espouse  a  virgin,  and  desire  to  espouse  another,  and  the 
first  give  her  consent;  and   if  he   espouse  the   second,  and  they 
are  virgins,  and  have  vowed  to  no  other  man,  then  is  he  justified; 
he  cannot  commit  adultery,  for  they  are  given  unto  him;  for  he 
cannot  commit  adultery  with  that  that  belongeth  unto  him  and  to 
no  one  else; 

62.  And  if  he   have  ten  virgins  given  unto  him  by  this  law, 
he  cannot  commit  adultery,  for  they  belong  to  him,  and  they  are 
given  unto  him,  therefore  he  is  justified. 

63.  But  if  one  or  either   of   the   ten  virgins,    after   she  is 
espoused,     shall   be    with    another    man,    she    has    committed 
adultery,  and  shall  be  destroyed;  for  they  are  given  unto  him  to 
multiply  and  replenish  the  earth,  according  to  my  commandment, 
and  to  fulfil  the  promise  which  was   given   by  my  Father   before 
the   foundation  of  the  world;   and  for  their  exaltation  in  the 
eternal  worlds,   that    they    may   bear    the    souls    of  men;   for 


34      UTHE  MORMON  PROPHET' S  TRAGEDY. M 

herein   is  the  work  of  my   Father  continued,   that  he   may    be 
glorified. 

64.  And   again,  verily,  verily,  I   say  unto    you,  if  any  man 
have  a  wife,  who  holds  the   keys  of   this  power,  and  he  teaches 
unto  her  the  law  of  my  Priesthood,  as  pertaining  to  these  things, 
then  shall  she  believe,  and  administer  unto  him,  or  she  shall  be 
destroyed,  saith  the  Lord  your  God,  for  I  will   destroy  her;  for  I 
will  magnify  my  name  upon  all  those  who   receive  and  abide  in 
my  law. 

65.  Therefore  it  shall  be  lawful  in  me,  if  she  receive  not  this 
law,  for  him  to,-receive  all  things  whatsoever  I,  the  Lord  his  God, 
will  give  unto  him,  because  she  did  not  administer  unto  him  ac- 
cording to  my  word;  and  she  then  becomes  the  transgressor;  and 
he  is  exempt  from  the  law  of  Sarah, 'who  administered  unto  Abra- 
ham, according  to  the  law,  when  I  commanded  Abraham  to  take 
Hagar  to  wife. 

66.  And  now,  as  pertaining  to  this  law,  verily,  verily,  I  say 
unto   you,  I  will   reveal  more  unto  you,  hereafter;  therefore,  let 
this  suffice   for  the  present.     Behold,    I  am   Alpha  and  Omega. 
Amen. 

HOW  AND   WHEN  PLURAL  MARRIAGE  WAS  ESTABLISHED. 

The  date  of  this  document,  it  will  be  observed, 
is  July  12,  1843.  But  the  principle  embodied  therein 
had  been  revealed  to  the  Prophet  many  years  before, 
even  prior  to  1838,  the  time  set  by  Mr.  Hay  as  a 
starting  point  for  the  alleged  immoralities  of  the 
Mormon  leader.  As  early  as  183L,  while  the  Church 
was  at  Kirtland,  Ohio,  Joseph  Smith  received  reve- 
lations respecting  plural  marriage,  but  did  not  com- 
mit them  to  writing.  Neither  did  he  practice  the 
principle,  nor  permit  its  practice  in  the  Church  at  that 
time.  He  mentioned  it,  however,  to  some  of  his 
trusted  friends,  predicted  its  eventual  establishment, 


"THE  MOKMON  PROPHET 's  TKAGEDY."          35 

and  gradually  prepared  the  way  for  its  introduction. 

Kirtland  was  the  cradle  of  the  Church.  As 
an  infant,  less  than  a  year  old,  it  was  carried  there 
from  its  birthplace,  Fayette,  Seneca  County,  New 
York.  In  1838  it  made  its  headquarters  at  Far 
West,  Caldwell  County,  Missouri,  to  which  State  it 
had  previously  sent  a  colony  to  u  build  up  Zion"  and 
gather  scattered  Israel,  preparatory  to  the  coming  of 
the  Lord.  From  Jackson  County — the  chosen  site  of 
the  New  Jerusalem — these  colonists  were  expelled 
with  violence  in  the  autumn  of  1833;  and  during  the 
winter  of  1838-9,  the  entire  Mormon  community, 
numbering  about  fifteen  thousand  souls,  were  driven 
out  of  Missouri,  under  the  exterminating  order  of 
Governor  Lilburn  W.  Boggs.  They  found  a  refuge 
in  Hancock  County,  Illinois,  where  they  built  the 
City  of  Nauvoo,  and  it  was  there  that  the  revelation 
on  plural  marriage  was  first  committed  to  writing. 
Uttered  by  Joseph,  the  Prophet,  it  was  taken  down 
by  William  Clayton,  his  scribe. 

In  obedience  to  this  divine  command, — for  such 
he  declared  it  to  be, — and  several  years  before  the 
revelation  was  thus  recorded,  Joseph  Smith  mar- 
ried plural  wives,  and  taught  the  principle  to  others, 
who  also  practiced  it.  But  this  was  done  privately, 
owing  to  the  great  opposition  foreseen.  Let  no 
one  think  that  it  was  not  a  trial  to  those  called 
upon  to  introduce  it.  Hep  worth  Dixon  was  right. 
Brigharn  Young  told  the  truth  when  he  said  he  was  op- 
posed originally  to  "plural  households. "  Instead  of 
"a  bait,"  it  was  a  cross,  to  men  as  well  as  women, 


36          "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY. " 

and  these  so-called  "profligates"  had  the  fiercest 
kinds  of  struggles  with  themselves  before  they  could 
conquer  their  native  prejudices  and  accept  a  principle 
so  foreign  to  their  Anglo-Saxon  traditions  and  Puri- 
tanic training.  However  divine  it  might  be,  it  was 
a  startling  innovation,  this  restored  marriage  system 
of  the  Hebrew  patriarchs;  and  though  designed  for 
physical  and  moral  regeneration  here  and  eternal  ex- 
altation hereafter,  it  was  with  heavy  hearts  that  these 
heroic  men  and  women  took  up  the  burden.  Mor- 
mon plural  marriage,  practiced  from  the  days  of 
Nauvoo  down  to  the  time  of  the  prohibitory  "Mani- 
festo" of  1890,  was  not  a  system  of  licentiousness; 
it  was  designed  to  correct  and  abolish  such  evils.  It 
enjoined  strict  purity  of  life,  imposed  obligations,  in- 
volved trials,  and  demanded  from  husbands  and 
wives  sacrifices  of  which  those  who  never  lived  in 
it  never  dreamed.  Only  the  best  of  men  and  women 
were  considered  worthy  to  live  this  higher  law ;  and 
indeed  only  the  best  and  noblest  were  capable  of  liv- 
ing it  aright.  These  were  called  to  be  the  pioneers 
in  its  establishment. 

Emma  Smith,  the  Prophet's  wife,  over  whose 
particular  case  Mr.  Hay  makes  merry,  was  among 
those  who  obeyed  the  commandment.  She  fulfilled 
"the  law  of  Sarah' '  and  gave  wives  to  her  husband;  but 
like  Sarah  she  was  not  equal  to  a  sustained  effort  in 
that  direction,  and  so  fell  away,  repudiated  the  prin- 
ciple, and  is  said  to  have  gone  so  far  as  to  declare  that 
Joseph  never  practiced  it.  She  maintained,  it  is  al- 
leged, that  Brigham  Young  (whom  she  disliked)  or- 


"THE  MOKMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY."          37 

iginated  the  doctrine  after  the  Prophet's  death.  But 
the  evidence  of  Joseph's  origination,  or  first  utterance 
of  the  revelation,  and  Emma's  acceptance  thereof, 
is  too  voluminous  and  too  conclusive  to  admit  of 
doubt.  It  was  Joseph  Smith,  not  Brigham  Young, 
who  introduced  and  established  plural  marriage  in 
the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints. 

Upon  some  of  the  points  touched  in  the  preced- 
ing paragraphs,  we  have  the  following  statement 
from  the  late  Helen  Mar  Kimball  Whitney,  whose 
father,  Heber  C.  Kimball,  was  one  of  the  Twelve 
Apostles  of  the  Church,  and  her  mother,  Vilate  Mur- 
ray Kimball,  a  first  wife  who  gave  other  wives  to  her 
husband. 

MRS.  WHITNEY'S  STATEMENT. 

"My  mother  often  told  me  that  she  could  not 
doubt  that  the  plural  order  of  marriage  was  of  God, 
for  the  Lord  had  revealed  it  to  her  in  answer  to  prayer. 

"In  Nauvoo,  shortly -after  his  return  from  Eng- 
land [July,  1841],  my  father,  among  others  of  his 
brethren,  was  taught  the  plural  wife  doctrine,  and 
was  told  by  Joseph  the  Prophet,  three  times,  to  go 
and  take  a  certain  woman  as  his  wife ;  but  not  till  he 
commanded  -him  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  did  he 
obey.  At  the  same  time  Joseph  told  him  not  to  di- 
vulge this  secret,  not  even  to  my  mother,  for  fear 
that  she  would  not  receive  it ;  for  his  life  was  in  con- 
stant jeopardy,  not  only  from  outside  influences  and 
enemies  who  were  seeking  some  plea  to  take  him 
back  to  Missouri,  but  from  false  brethren  who  had 


38          "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY." 

crept  like  snakes  into  his  bosom  and  then  betrayed  him. 

"My  father  realized  the  situation  fully,  and  the 
love  and  reverence  he  bore  the  Prophet  were  so  great 
that  he  would  sooner  have  laid  down  his  life  than 
have  betrayed  him.  This  was  one  of  the  greatest 
tests  of  his  faith  he  had  ever  experienced.  The 
thought  of  deceiving  the  kind  and  faithful  wife  of 
his  youth,  whom  he  loved  with  all  his  heart,  and 
who  with  him  had  borne  so  patiently  their  separa- 
tions, and  all  the  trials  and  sacrifices  they  had  been 
called  to  endure,  was  more  than  he  felt  able  to  bear. 

"He  realized  not  only  the  addition  of  trouble  and 
perplexity  that  such  a  step  must  bring  upon  him, 
but  his  sorrow  and  misery  were  increased  by  the 
thought  of  my  mother's  hearing  of  it  from  some 
other  source,  which  would  no  doubt  separate  them, 
and  he  shrank  from  the  thought  of  such  a  thing,  or 
of  causing  her  any  unhappiness.  Finally  he  was  so 
tried  that  he  went  to  Joseph  and  told  him  how  he 
felt — that  he  was  fearful  if  he  took  such  a  step  he 
could  not  stand,  but  would  be  overcome.  The 
Prophet,  full  of  sympathy  for  him,  went  and  in- 
quired of  the  Lord.  His  answer  was,  'Tell  him  to  go 
and  do  as  he  has  been  commanded,  and  if  I  see  that 
there  is  any  danger  of  his  apostatizing,  I  will  take 
him  to  myself.' 

"The  fact  that  he  had  to  be  commanded  three 
times  to  do  this  thing  shows  that  the  trial  must  have 
been  extraordinary,  for  he  was  a  man  who,  from  the 
first,  had  yielded  implicit  obedience  to  every  require* 
ment  of  the  Prophet « 


"THE  MOKMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY."          39 

1  'When  first  hearing  the  principle  taught,  be- 
lieving that  he  would  be  called  upon  to  enter  into  it, 
he  had  thought  of  two  elderly  ladies  named  Pitkin, 
great  friends  of  my  mother's,  who,  he  believed,  would 
cause  her  little  if  any  unhappiness.  But  the  woman 
he  was  commanded  to  take  was  an  English  lady 
named  Sarah  Noon,  nearer  my  mother's  age,  who 
came  over  with  the  company  of  Saints  in  the  same 
ship  in  which  father  and  Brother  Brigham  returned 
from  Europe.  She  had  been  married  and  was  the 
mother  of  two  little  girls,  but  left  her  husband  on 
account  of  his  drunken  and  dissolute  habits.  Father 
was  told  to  take  her  as  his  wife  and  provide  for  her 
and  her  children,  and  he  did  so. 

uMy  mother  had  noticed  a  change  in  his  manner 
and  appearance,  and  when  she  inquired  the  cause, 
he  tried  to  evade  her  questions.  At  last  he  promised 
he  would  tell  her  after  a  while,  if  she  would  only 
wait.  This  trouble  so  worked  upon  his  mind  that 
his  anxious  and  haggard  looks  betrayed  him  daily 
and  hourly,  and  finally  his  misery  became  so  un- 
bearable that  it  was  impossible  to  control  his  feelings. 
He  became  sick  in  body,  but  his  mental  wretchedness 
was  too  great  to  allow  of  his  retiring,  and  he  would 
walk  the  floor  till  nearly  morning,  and  sometimes 
the  agony  of  his  mind  was  so  terrible  that  he  would 
wring  his  hands  and  weep  like  a  child,  and  beseech 
the  Lord  to  be  merciful  and  reveal  to  her  this  prin- 
ciple, for  he  himself  could  not  break  his  vow  of 
secrecy. 

"The  anguish  of  their  hearts  was  indescribable , 


40  "THE  MOEMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY." 

and  when  she  found  it  was  useless  to  beseech  him 
longer,  she  retired  to  her  room  and  bowed  before  the 
Lord  and  poured  out  her  soul  in  prayer  to  Him  who 
hath  said:  'If  any  lack  wisdom  let  him  ask  of  God, 
who  giveth  to  all  men  liberally  and  upbraideth  not. ' 
My  father's  heart  was  raised  at  the  same  time  in  sup- 
plication. While  pleading  as  one  would  plead  for 
life,  the  vision  of  her  mind  was  opened,  and  as  dark- 
ness flees  before  the  morning  sun,  so  did  her  sorrow 
and  the  groveling  things  of  earth  vanish  away. 

"Before  her  was  illustrated  the  order  of  celestial 
marriage,  in  all  its  beauty  and  glory,  together  with 
the  great  exaltation  and  honor  it  would  confer  upon 
her  in  that  immortal  and  celestial  sphere,  if  she 
would  accept  it  and  stand  in  her  place  by  her  hus- 
band's side.  She  also  saw  the  woman  he  had  taken 
to  wife,  and  contemplated  with  joy  the  va^t  and 
boundless  love  and  union  which  this  order  would 
bring  about,  as  well  as  the  increase  of  her  husband's 
kingdoms,  and  the  power  and  glory  extending 
throughout  the  eternities,  worlds  without  end. 

"With  a  countenance  beaming  with  joy,  for  she 
was  filled  with  the  Spirit  of  God,  she  returned  to  my 
father,  saying:  'Heber,  what  you  kept  from  me  the 
Lord  has  shown  me.'  She  told  me  she  never  saw  so 
happy  a  man  as  father  was  when  she  described  the 
vision  and  told  him  she  was  satisfied  and  knew  it 
was  from  God. 

uShe  covenanted  to  stand  by  him  and  honor  the 
principle,  which  covenant  she  faithfully  kept,  and 
though  her  trials  were  often  heavy  and  grievous  to 


"THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY."          41 

bear,  she  knew  that  father  was  also  being  tried,  and 
her  integrity  was  unflinching  to  the  end.  She  gave 
my  father  many  wives,  and  they  always  found  in  my 
mother  a  faithful  friend." 

A  LIVING  WIDOW  OP  THE  PROPHET. 

Up  to  within  a  few  years  there  resided  in  Utah 
several  of  the  widows  of  the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith ; 
and  they  were  among  the  most  refined,  most  virtuous, 
most  intelligent  women  in  the  community.  After 
Joseph's  death  they  remarried,  some  of  them  as 
plural  wives.  One  of  these  ladies  is  still  living.  She 
is  known  as  Mrs.  Lucy  Walker  Kimball,  and  her 
home  is  at  No.  332  East  Fourth  South  Street,  Salt 
Lake  City.  Mrs.  Kimball  is  personally  cognizant  of 
the  fact  that  Emma  Smith  gave  wives  to  her  hus- 
band and  helped  to  protect  him  in  the  practice  of 
plural  marriage. 

JOHN  c.  BENNETT'S  ROMANCES  AND  RASCALITIES. 

It  was  John  C.  Bennett  who  set  afloat  the  false- 
hood that  Joseph  Smith  sanctioned  illicit  relations 
between  the  sexes.  A  more  consummate  villain  never 
practiced  upon  the  patience  of  a  community  than 
this  man  Bennett;  if  man  he  may  be  called.  He  was 
more  fiend  than  man,  an  lago  in  real  life,  a  Mach- 
iavellian of  the  worst  type.  G-overnor  Thomas  Ford, 
in  his  history  of  Illinois,  refers  to  him  as  u probably 
the  greatest  scamp  in  the  western  country."  He  had 
associated  himself  with  the  Mormon  people  soon 
after  their  cruel  expulsion  from  Missouri.  Profess- 


42          "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY." 

ing  great  sympathy  for  the  persecuted  Saints,  he  was 
apparently  a  sincere  convert  to  their  faith.  At  that 
time  he  held  the  office  of  Quarter-master  General  of 
Illinois.  Educated,  and  considerable  of  a  diplomat, 
he  assisted  to  secure  from  the  Legislature  the  chart- 
er of  the  City  of  Nauvoo.  He  was  known  from  the 
first  as  egotistical  and  vain,  but  that  he  was  corrupt 
and  unprincipled  did  not  immediately  appear.  He 
was  rewarded  for  his  services  in  working  for  the 
charter,  with  the  mayoralty  of  the  city.  He  also 
became  Chancellor  of  the  University  and  Major- Gen- 
eral of  the  Legion,  at  Nauvoo. 

In  May,  1842,  Bennett's  treachery  and  ras- 
cality became  known  to  his  benefactor,  Joseph 
Smith,  whose  life,  it  seems,  he  had  basely  attempted. 
Soon  afterward  he  was  convicted  of  the  crime  of  seduc- 
tion and  severed  from  the  Church .  Vindictive  in  the 
extreme,  he  invented  all  sorts  of  stories  to  bring  trouble 
upon  his  former  friends.  Some  of  these  he  circu- 
lated before  his  excommunication ;  notably  the  canard 
in  relation  to  the  Prophet's  licentiousness.  Affect- 
ing deep  contrition  after  his  exposure,  he  voluntarily 
made  affidavit  that  Joseph  Smith  had  never  taught 
him  anything  contrary  to  the  principles  of  truth  and 
virtue,  and  so  far  as  he  knew  the  Prophet's  private 
life  was  above  reproach.  Finding  that  he  could  not 
regain  the  confidence  of  the  community,  he  withdrew 
from  Nauvoo  and  became  for  a  time  the  head  and 
front  of  an  anti-Mormon  movement.  He  wrote  and 
published  a  book,  a  pretended  expose  of  Mormon- 
ism,  in  which  be  revived  the  false  story  of  the 


"THE  MOEMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY."          43 

"Danites,"  or  "Destroying  Angels, "  originally  told 
by  Dr.  Avard,  another  apostate,  in  Missouri.  Ben- 
nett declared  that  these  "Danites"  (Mormon  aveng- 
ers) were  following  him,  to  put  him  out  of  the  way. 
He  alleged  that  Joseph  Smith  was  about  to  make 
himself  a  king;  that  he  was  planning  the  overthrow 
of  the  American  republic,  and  the  founding  of  a  des- 
potic empire  upon  its  ruins ;  that  he  even  then  kept 
a  seraglio,  like  an  oriental  monarch,  and  if  permitted 
to  gain  'the  power  he  coveted  would  gratify  to  the 
full  upon  the  persons  and  properties  of  his  Mormon 
and  non-Mormon  subjects,  his  lustful  passions  and 
tyrannical  instincts. 

It  was  Bennett  who  invented  the  jargon  of 
"spiritual  wives."  I  mean  that  the  phrase  was 
his,  but  it  was  never  the  accepted  title  of  the  prin- 
ciple it  pretended  to  describe.  This  and  his  other 
jargons  about  "cyprian  saints,"  "chambered  sisters 
of  charity,"  "consecratees  of  the  cloister,"  etc., 
were  invented  to  cover  up  his  own  iniquity,  and  to 
wreak  revenge  upon  the  Prophet,  who  had  re- 
pudiated him  and  his  villainies.  Bennett  was  guilty 
of  all  the  sexual  sins,  amours,  seductions,  attempted 
and  in  some  cases  consummated,  that  he  falsely 
charged  upon  Joseph  Smith. 

The  intelligent  and  reputable  anti-Mormons, — 
whose  casus  loelli  against  the  Prophet  and  his  people 
was  their  alleged  political  solidarity, —despised  Bennett 
and  distrusted  his  sensational  story ;  but  some  were, 
simple  enough  to  give  the  vile  wretch,  whose  innate, 
wickedness  shows  on  every  page  of  bis  book,  tlm 


44  UTHE   MORMON  PROPHET'S   TRAGEDY." 

unmerited  credence  that  he  craved;  accepting  Jiolus 
bolus  the  assertion  of  this  liar  and  hypocrite,  that  his 
motive  for  becoming  a  Mormon  had  been  to  acquaint 
himself  with  the  Prophet's  treasonable  designs  (which 
he  had  before  suspected) ,  in  order  that  he  might  be 
the  savior  of  his  country!  He  fully  exemplified  the 
truth  of  bluff  old  Dr.  Johnson's  proverb:  "Patriot- 
ism is  the  last  refuge  of  a  scoundrel." 

Bennett  had  as  his  coadjutors  the  worst  elements 
of  the  anti-Mormon  party,  which  rallied  to  its  stand- 
ard, not  only  some  very  respectable  persons,  but 
every  ruffian  having  a  grudge  or  grievance  against 
the  unpopular  Church  or  any  of  its  members.  He 
was  also  in  league  with  a  ring  of  apostates  at  Nau- 
voo,  who  secretly  aided  him  in  the  preparation  of  his 
so-called  expose.  A  double-headed  conspiracy  ex- 
isted, the  object  of  which  was  the  overthrow  of  the 
Mormon  power,  religiously  and  politically ;  the  des- 
truction of  the  leaders,  and  the  extermination,  if 
need  be,  of  their  followers.  This  is  no  exaggera- 
tion. Out  of  their  own  mouths  shall  the  guilty 
be  judged. 

JOSEPH  SMITH   A   PRESIDENTIAL    CANDIDATE. 

To  show  at  a  glance  how  groundless  was  the 
charge  that  Joseph  Smith  proposed  making  himself  a 
king,  it  is  but  needful  to  cite  the  fact  that  the  open- 
ing of  1844,  the  year  of  the  martyrdom,  witnessed  his 
candidacy  for  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States. 
An  ardent  lover  of  liberty,  a  descendant  of  pil- 
grims and  patriots  who  had  helped  to  found  the 


"THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY. "          45 

nation ;  the  first  man  on  earth  to  declare  that  the 
American  government  came  by  inspiration  from 
God;  he,  of  all  men,  to  be  accused  of  plotting  for  its 
overthrow!  His  mind,  at  this  very  period,  was 
wrought  upon  by  the  most  patriotic  impulses,  look- 
ing to  the  still  greater  glory  and  grandeur  of  his 
country.  He  favored  "the  extension  of  the  Union, 
with  the  consent  of  the  red  man,  from  sea  to  sea;" 
"the  annexation  of  Texas,  if  she  petitioned  for  it, 
and  of  Canada  and  Mexico, whenever  they  should  de- 
sire to  enter  the  Union ;"  also  the  abolition  of  slav- 
ery, though  upon  the  basis  of  a  just  and  proper  re- 
muneration of  the  slave-holders  by  the  general  gov- 
ernment. Said  he:  "We  have  had  Democratic  Pres- 
idents, Whig  Presidents,  a  pseudo-Democratic-Whig 
President;  and  now  it  is  time  to  have  a  President  of 
the  United  States."  These  were  among  his  pro- 
nounced political  views.  Do  they  savor  of  kingcraft 
and  tyranny!  Again  he  said:  "I  feel  it  to  be  my 
right  and  privilege  to  obtain  what  influence  and  pow- 
er I  can,  lawfully,  in  the  United  States,  for  the  pro- 
tection of  injured  innocence;  and  if  I  lose  my  life  in 
a  good  cause,  I  am  willing  to  be  sacrificed  on  the 
altar  of  virtue,  righteousness  and  truth,  in  maintain- 
ing the  laws  and  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
if  need  be,  for  the  general  good  of  mankind."  A 
courageous  spirit,  truly;  a  cosmopolitan  spirit;  but 
not  the  spirit  of  disloyalty. 

To  promulgate  these  views  through  the  Eastern, 
Northern,  and  Southern  States,  and  work  for  the 
Prophet  in  the  campaign,  went  forth  from  Nauvoo, 


46          "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY.** 

in  the  spring  of  that  memorable  year,  such  men  as 
Brigham  Young,  Heber  C.  Kimball,  Parley  and 
Orson  Pratt,  George  A.  Smith,  Wilford  Woodruff, 
and  other  Mormon  stalwarts.  Hyrum  Smith,  the 
Patriarch  of  the  Church;  Willard  Richards,  its  his- 
torian; John  Taylor,  editor  of  the  "Times  and 
Seasons''  and  the  "Nauvoo  Neighbor,"  with  other 
prominent  Elders,  remained  with  the  Prophet  in  Ill- 
inois. 

THE   NAUVOO   EXPOSITOR. 

It  was  just  at  this  juncture  that  the  "Nauvoo 
Expositor"  made  its  appearance.  The  publishers  of 
that  paper  were  William  and  Wilson  Law,  Charles 
I vins, Francis  M.  and  Chauncey  L.  Higbee, Robert  D. 
and  Charles  A.  Foster.  Most  of  ^these  were  apostate 
Mormons,  who  looked  upon  Joseph  Smith  as  "a 
fallen  prophet,"  though  they  still  professed  faith  in 
the  doctrines  originally  taught  by  him.  They  had 
set  up  a  church  of  their  own,  with  William  Law  at 
its  head.  He  had  been  Joseph's  second  counselor 
in  the  First  Presidency,  but  had  found,  like  Sidney 
Rigdon,  the  first  counselor,  a  stumbling  block  in 
plural  marriage.  President  Rigdon,  by  the  way,  had 
left  Nauvoo  and  was  living  at  Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 
at  this  crisis  in  the  affairs  of  the  Church.  Subse- 
quently he  laid  claim  to  the  leadership,  but  was  re- 
jected by  the  vote  of  the  members,  who  sustained 
Brigham  Young,  the  senior  of  the  Twelve  Apostles, 
as  the  rightful  successor  to  President  Joseph  Smith. 
William  Law  was  presumably  the  "Mr.  Law"  referred 


"THE  MOKMON/PKOPHET'S  TRAGEDY."          4f 

to  by  Colonel*  Hay,  as  having  purchased,  in  con- 
nection with  one  "Doctor  Foster, "  a  press  and  types, 
with  the  intention  of  turning  the  light  upon  the  al- 
leged * 'iniquity77  of  the  Mormon  leader.  William 
Law  was  naturally  a  good  and  upright  man,  but  had 
fallen  under  an  influence  inimical  to  the  Prophet,  and 
was  now  much  embittered  against  him.  His  brother, 
Wilson  Law,  the  successor  to  John  C.  Bennett  as 
Major-General  of  the  Nauvoo  Legion,  had  been,  cash- 
iered for  dishonesty  and  had  resigned.  Robert  D. 
Foster,  the  '  'Doctor  Foster"  of  the  Hay  narrative, 
had  been  sharply  reprimanded  by  the  Prophet,  for  an 
act  bordering  on  immorality.  In  Bennett 's  book  he  is 
referred  to  by  one  of  his  own  party,  George  W.  Rob- 
inson, as  "that  notable  liar,  scoundrel  and  villain. " 
A  similar  cloud  rested  upon  others  of  the  little  coterie 
of  backsliders. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  the  charges  of 
unchastity  made  against  Joseph  Smith,  all  grew  out 
of  the  practice  of  plural  marriage,  a  thing  very  easi- 
ly misunderstood,  and  very  liable  to  be  misrepre- 
sented, especially  in  those  days,  when  it  had  not 
been  openly  avowed,  and  was  practiced  only  in  pri- 
vate. Upon  a  complaint  signed  by  William  Law, 
charging  him  with  polygamy,  the  Prophet  stood  in- 
dicted at  Carthage,  the  county  seat  of  Hancock 
County,  at  the  time  of  the  issuance  of  the  "Nau- 
voo Expositor." 

The  avowed  purpose  of  this  publication,  as  an- 
nounced in  its  prospectus,  dated  May  10th,  1844,  was 
to  advocate  "the  unconditional  repeal  of  the  Nauvoo 


48  "THE  MOKMON  PBOPHET's   TRAGEDY. " 

City  Charter, ' '  efforts  to  which  end  had  already  been 
made  in  the  Illinois  legislature.  A  further  design,  as 
shown  by  the  first  and  final  number  of  the  paper, 
which  made  its  appearance  on  the  7th  of  June,  was 
to  libel  the  Mormon  leaders,  and  bring  upon  them 
and  their  people  the  terrible  power  of  the  mob.  The 
main  target,  as  a  matter  of  course,  was  the  Prophet 
at  the  head  of  the  Church. 

"It  was  clear,"  says  Mr.  Hay,  "that  a  crisis  had 
arisen  in  his  fortunes.  A  clearer-headed  man  than 
he  might  well  have  hesitated  as  to  the  course  most 
expedient  to  pursue.  To  disregard  this  sudden  and 
vigorous  attack  might  prove  fatal  to  his  prestige. 
We  may  smile  at  the  lame  grammar  and  turgid  rhet- 
oric of  the  Expositor,  but  it  was  a  better  paper  than 
Smith's  organ,  the  Neighbor.  Parmi  les  aveuqles  le 
borgne  est  roi.*  A  little  brains  went  farther  in 
Nauvoo  than  anywhere  else  on  earth.  Contemptible 
as  the  Expositor  was,  Smith  could  not  despise  it.  To 
resort  to  violence  might  lead  to  bloody  reprisals. 
But  his  rowdy  instincts  decided  the  question.  He 
procured  from  his  corrupt  and  servile  municipal  court 
an  order  declaring  the  new  journal  a  public  nuisance. 
A  party  of  his  myrmidons  destroyed  the  press  and 
pied  the  offending  types. 

"This  act  was  Smith's  death-warrant.  There- 
after the  mob  could  say  to  the  prophet,  The  villainy 
you  teach  me  I  will  execute." 

A  luminous  sample,  this,  of  our  learned  author's 

*  Among  the  blind  the  mole  is  king. 


"THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY."          49 

logic.  The  abatement  of  a  libelous  newspaper, 
officially  condemned  as  a  public  nuisance  under  the 
provisions  of  a  duly  enacted  municipal  ordinance;  a 
peaceable,  orderly  proceeding,  done  by  the  regular 
police,  under  the  direction  of  the  Mayor  and  City 
Council,  Mr.  Hay  considers  an  act  of  lawlessness, 
and  virtually  pleads  it  in  extenuation  of  the  vio- 
lence of  the  mob  which  retaliated  by  murdering  Joseph 
and  Hyrum  Smith.  In  a  land  of  Bibles  and  churches, 
of  laws  and  of  courts,  with  the  Mormons  in  the  min- 
ority, the  only  way  to  get  even  with  them,  for  an  act 
of  alleged  riot,  in  which  no  blood  was  spilt,  and  no 
personal  injury  inflicted,  was  to  treacherously  impris- 
on and  foully  murder  their  leaders !  Was  it  by  dint 
of  such  powerful  reasoning  as  this  that  John  Hay 
rose  to  eminence?  His  narrative  goes  on: 

"Smith's  official  paper,  the  Neighbor,  gave  a 
full  account  of  the  proceeding.  The  article  ends  in 
these  words,  which  bear  a  cuiious  family  likeness  to 
the  protests  for  ever  made  by  slaveholders  and  other 
enemies  of  the  human  race,  against  the  reprisals  of 
law  and  justice.  They  want  nothing  more  than  to 
be  let  alone.  'And  in  the  name  of  freemen,  and  in 
the  name  of  God,  we  beseech  all  men  who  have  the 
spirit  of  honor  in  them  to  cease  from  persecuting  us 
collectively  or  individually.  Let  us  enjoy  our  relig 
ion,  rights,  and  peace,  like  the  rest  of  mankind. 
Why  start  presses  to  destroy  rights  and  privileges, 
and  bring  upon  us  mobs  to  plunder  and  murder?  We 
ask  no  more  than  what  belongs  to  us — the  rights  of 
Americans.'  " 


50  "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY." 

The  attempt  to  parallel  the  case  of  the  Mormons 
with  that  of  "slaveholders  and  other  enemies  of  the 
human  race,"  and  to  dignify  the  deeds  of  mobs 
into  "the  reprisals  of  law  and  justice,"  is  another 
argumental  absurdity.  Where  premises  are  wrong, 
conclusions  are  apt  to  be  illegitimate.  The  Mor- 
mons were  neither  slaveholders  nor  enemies  of  the 
human  race.  They  were  what  they  claimed  to  be, 
Americans,  loyal  and  law-abiding.  As  such,  they 
had  the  right  "to  be  let  alone,"  even  by  Mr.  Hay 
and  his  illogical  criticisms.  But  let  him  proceed: 

"Foster  and  Law  fled,  like  the  vanquished  Mar- 
ius,  to  Carthage.  Although  the  county  authorities, 
who  had  been  elected  on  the  Democratic  ticket  and 
had  received  the  solid  Mormon  vote,  were  disposed 
to  deal  as  gently  as  possible  with  the  autocrat  of 
Nauvoo,  they  could  not  refuse  the  warrants  of  arrest 
for  which  the  fugitives  applied.  These  were  granted 
against  Joseph  and  Hiram  Smith  and  sixteen  others 
of  the  rioters.  But  when  the  deputy  sheriff  went  to 
Nauvoo  the  Mormons  smiled  at  his  simplicity,  and 
went  through  the  form  of  arrest,  habeas  corpus,  trial, 
and  acquittal  before  that  singular  municipal  court  of 
which  the  prophet  was  judge,  jury,  counsel,  and  pris- 
oner, with  a  promptness  and  celerity  that  astonished 
the  officer.  They  then  sent  him  back  to  Carthage, 
with  significant  admonitions. 

THE    SPIRIT   OF   MURDER   RAMPANT. 

"These  occurrences  gave  rise  to  an  excitement  in 
the  county  which  one,  regarding  the  matter  calmly 


"THE  MOKMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY."          51 

from  this  distance,  finds  it  difficult  to  account  for. 
Public  meetings  were  held  in  every  precinct.  Vol- 
unteer companies  sprang  up  everywhere  at  the  tap  of 
a  drum.  There  was  drilling  on  every  common,  and 
hoarse  eloquence  in  all  the  school  houses.  Expresses 
were  riding  on  all  the  roads  with  imperfectly  defined 
purposes.  The  brigadier- general  commanding  the 
militia  ordered  a  levy  en  masse  in  the  adjoining 
counties.  The  newspapers  of  the  county  grew  hys- 
terical with  exclamation  points  and  i display  type.7 
The  Warsaw  Signal,  published  at  the  headquarters 
of  the  anti:Mormons  by  Mr.  Thomas  C.  Sharp,  was 
simply  frantic  in  its  issue  of  the  12th  of  June.  Here 
is  an  extract.  I  regret  not  to  be  able  to  give  the  ec- 
centricities of  lettering  by  which  the  words  seem  to 
shriek  on  the  page.  A  letter  from  Foster  relates  the 
destruction  of  the  Expositor  press.  The  Signal  adds: 
"We  have  only  to  state  that  this  is  sufficient!  War 
and  extermination  is  inevitable!  CITIZENS  AKISE,  ONE 
and  ALL!  ! !  Can  you  stand  by,  and  suffer  such  IN- 
FEKNAL  DEVILS!  to  ROB  men  of  their  property  and 
EIGHTS,  without  avenging  them?  We  have  no  time 
to  comment:  every  man  will  make  his  own.  Let  it 
be  made  with  POWDER  and  BALL  ! ! ! ' 

ACCOUNTING  FOE  THE  UNACCOUNTABLE. 

Then  follows  a  labored  effort  to  account  for  the 
unwarrantable  agitation,  to  excuse  the  bloody 
deed  resulting  from  this  direct  incitement  to  murder. 
It  is  made  to  appear  that  at  a  public  meeting  held  in 


52          "THE  MOKMON  PKOPHET'S  TRAGEDY. " 

Nauvoo  the  day  before,  "Joe  Smith  alluded  darkly 
to  other  sinners  that  might  tempt  his  wrath  too  far," 
and  "denounced  the  ultimate  pains  upon  all  who 
were  not  willing  to  wide  knee  deep  in  blood  to  do 
his  bidding;"  also  that  Hyrum  Smith  covertly 
threatened  "long-nosed  Sharp"  with  "a  pinch  of 
snuff  that  would  make  him  sneeze."  Mr.  Hay  then 
tells  how  for  four  years  the  entire  County  of  Han- 
cock had  been  kept  in  a  state  of  unwholesome  excite- 
ment by  "these  people"  (the  Mormons),  the  large 
majority  of  whom  were  "ignorant,  honest,  hard- 
working folk,"  "harmless  and  peaceable,"  and  yet, 
according  to  his  peculiar  logic,  "bad  neighbors." 
The  Mormon  vote  was  *  'invariably  cast  for  the  Dem- 
ocratic ticket."  (Mr.  Hay  was  a  Republican). 
"Thieves  and  vagrants  were  in  Nauvoo  patronized 
and  protected."  "The  City  Charter,  granted  by  the 
Legislature  in  a  sordid  subserviency,  gave  to  the 
municipal  court  a  wide  jurisdiction,"  and  "the 
accused  Mormon,  appealing  to  this  court  for  protec- 
tion against  the  persecuting  Gentile,  always  got  off 
scott  free."  The  Mayor  and  common  council  at 
Nauvoo  treated  with  high- handed  contempt  the  laws 
of  the  State,  and  sworn  officers  of  the  law,  elected  by 
the  solid  Mormon  vote,  connived  at  such  proceed- 
ings. The  Prophet,  "intoxicated  with  so  abnormal  a 
power,"  began  to  develop  royal  vices;  appropriated 
the  exclusive  right  to  deal  in  real  estate,  to  sell 
liquor,  to  marry  and  to  give  in  marriage,  and  finally 
(crime  of  crimes!)  became  a  presidential  candidate, 
and  "went  so  far  as  to  have  views  and  to  publish 


"THE  MOKMON  PROPHET *s  TRAGEDY."          53 

them."       Some  minor  charges  are  made,  and  Mr. 
Hay  then  sums  up  the  case  as  follows : 

"It  was  this  arrogant  sense  of  his  own  power 
that  at  last  destroyed  him.  At  first  he  treated  the 
sheriff's  warrant  with  contempt.  At  the  second  sum- 
mons, he  told  the  officer  he  would  go  the  next  day 
with  him  to  Carthage.  He  did  not  keep  his  appoint- 
ment. The  officer  went  back  to  Carthage  alone. 
But  a  day  or  two  afterwards,  the  Smiths  came  riding 
into  Carthage  unattended,  except  by  their  common 
council  and  others  accused  of  riot,  and  gave  them- 
selves up  to  the  county  authorities." 

GOVERNOR  FORD'S  VERSION. 

The  inner  history  of  that  transaction, — the  at- 
tempt to  arrest  the  Prophet  and  carry  him  to  Carth- 
age, not  to  be  tried,  but  to  be  murdered, — is  given 
by  Governor  Ford  as  follows : 

"Upon  the  arrival  of  the  constable  and  guard 
(at  Nauvoo),  the  May  or  and  common  council  at  once 
signified  their  willingness  to  surrender,  and  stated 
their  readiness  to  proceed  to  Carthage  next  morn- 
ing at  eight  o'clock.  Martial  law  had  previously 
been  abolished.  The  hour  of  eight  o'clock  came, 
and  the  accused  failed  to  make  their  appearance. 
The  constable  and  his  escort  returned.  The  con- 
stable made  no  effort  to  arrest  any  of  them,  nor 
would  he  or  the  guard  delay  their  departure  one 
minute  beyond  the  time,  to  see  whether  an  arrest 
could  be  made.  Upon  their  return,  they  reported 


54  UTHE   MORMON   PROPHET  7S   TRAGEDY. " 

that  they  had  been  informed  that  the  accused  had 
fled  and  could  not  be  found. 

"I  immediately  proposed  to  a  council  of  officers 
to  march  into  Nauvoo  with  a  small  force  then  under 
my  command,  but  the  officers  were  of  opinion 
that  it  was  too  small,  and  many  of  them  insisted  up- 
on a  further  call  of  the  militia.  Upon  reflection  I 
was  of  opinion  that  the  officers  were  right  in  the 
estimate  of  our  force,  and  the  project  for  immediate 
action  was  abandoned.  I  was  soon  informed,  how- 
ever, of  the  conduct  of  the  constable  and  guard,  and 
then  I  was  perfectly  satisfied  that  a  most  base  fraud 
had  beeen  attempted;  that,  in  fact,  it  was  feared 
that  the  Mormons  would  submit,  and  thereby  entitle 
themselves  to  the  protection  of  the  law.  It  was  very 
apparent  that  many  of  the  bustling,  active  spirits 
were  afraid  that  there  would  be  no  occasion  for  call- 
ing out  an  overwhelming  militia  force,  for  marching 
it  into  Nauvoo,  for  probable  mutiny  when  there,  and 
for  the  extermination  of  the  Mormon  race.  It  ap- 
peared that  the  ^constable  and  the  escort  were  fully 
in  the 'secret  and  acted  well  their  part  to  promote  the 
conspiracy ." 

"I  gradually  learned,"  says  the  Governor,  uto 
my  entire  satisfaction,  that  there  was  a  plan  to  get 
the  troops  into  Nauvoo  and  then  begin  the  war, 
probably  by  some  of  our  own  party,  or  some  of  the 
seceding  Mormons,  taking  advantage  of  the  night 
to  fire  on  our  own  force,  and  then  laying  it  on  the 
Mormons.  I  was  satisfied  that  there  were  those 
among  us  fully  capable  of  such  an  act,  hoping  that 


"THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY. "          55 

in  the  alarm,  bustle  and  confusion  of  a  militia  camp, 
the  truth  could  not  be  discovered,  and  that  it  might 
lead  to  the  desired  collision. " 

Governor  Ford's  attitude  in  this  and  in  other 
matters,  with  the  language  employed  by  him  to  de- 
scribe the  acts  and  aims  of  the  radical  members  of 
his  party,  makes  clear  that  he  was  not  in  sym- 
pathy with  those  citizens  of  Illinois,  and  partic- 
ularly of  Hancock  County,  who  had  made  up  their 
minds  to  emulate  Governor  Boggs  and  his  Missouri- 
ans,  and  "  exterminate  the  Mormon  people  or  drive 
them  from  the  State."  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that 
all  the  non-Mormon  residents  of  Hancock  County 
were  united  upon  this  outrageous  proposition.  Far 
from  it.  According  to  Mr.  Thomas  Gregg,  the  his- 
torian of  that  county,  there  were  three  classes  of  cit- 
izens there,  in  addition  to  the  Mormons  themselves. 
These  he  names  as  follows:  (1)  " Jack- Mormons," 
(a  term  used  to  designate  those  who  for  any  reason 
were  friendly  to  the  unpopular  people) ;  (2)  "old 
citizens  who  were  anti-Mormons  at  heart,  but  who 
refused  to  countenance  any  but  lawful  measures  for 
redress  of  grievances;"  and  (3)  "anti- Mormons, 
who,  now  that  the  crisis  had  come,  advocated  'war 
and  extermination.'  " 

HOW    THIEVES    WERE     "PATRONIZED   AND   PROTECTED." 

The  best  answer  to  Mr.  Hay's  assertion  that 
thieves  and  vagrants  were  patronized  and  protected 
in  Nauvoo,  is  the  following  proclamation,  issued 


56  UTHE  MORMON  PROPHET'S   TRAGEDY." 

by  the  Prophet,   as  Mayor  of  the  City,  March  25, 
1843: 

"Whereas,  it  is  reported  that  there  now  exists  a  band  of  des- 
peradoes, bound  by  oaths  of  secrecy,  under  severe  penalties  in 
case  any  member  of  the  combination  divulges  their  plans  of  steal- 
ing and  conveying  properties  from  station  to  station  up  and  down 
the  Mississippi  and  other  routes:  And: 

"Whereas  it  is  reported  that  the  fear  of  the  execution  of  the 
pains  and  penalties  of  their  secret  oaths  on  their  persons  prevents 
some  members  of  said  secret  association  (who  have,  through 
falsehood  and  deceit,  been  drawn  into  their  snares,)  from  di- 
vulging the  same  to  the  legally  constituted  authorities  of  the 
land: 

"Know  ye,  therefore,  that  I,  Joseph  Smith,  Mayor  of  the 
city  of  Nauvoo,  will  grant  and  insure  protection  against  all  per- 
sonal mob  violence,  to  each  and  every  citizen  of  this  city,  who 
will  come  before  me  and  truly  make  known  the  names  of  all  such 
abominable  characters  as  are  engaged  in  said  secret  combination 
for  stealing,  or  are  accessory  thereto  in  any  manner.  And  I  res- 
pectfully solicit  the  co-operation  of  all  ministers  of  justice  in  this 
and  the  neighboring  states  to  ferret  out  a  band  of  thievish  out- 
laws from  our  midst." 

"THE  SOLID  MORMON  VOTE." 

The  charge  of  political  solidarity,  even  if  true, 
would  not  justify  murder  and  extermination.  But  it 
is  not  true  that  the  Mormon  vote  in  Illinois  was  an 
absolutely  solid  vote,  or  that  it  was  cast  invariably 
for  the  Democratic  ticket.  That  is  simply  a  politi- 
cian's partisan  fling.  He  wanted  to  say  something 
hard  about  the  Democrats,  and  the  situation  at  Nau- 
voo, as  imagined  and  described  by  him,  gave  the 
opportunity.  Here  is  the  reference  in  full;  "The 


UTHE  MORMON  PROPHET'S   TRAGEDY."  57 

Mormon  vote,  being  always  cast  solid,  was  all  pow- 
erful in  the  county  and  of  no  slight  importance  in 
the  State.  It  was  invariably  cast  for  the  Democratic 
ticket,  as  is  the  Fenian  vote  today.  And,  like  the 
Fenian  vote,  it  had  a  demoralizing  influence  upon 
both  parties;  the  one  making  dishonorable  advances 
to  gain  it,  and  the  other  making  humiliating  con- 
cessions to  retain  it.  By  this  means  the  Mormons 
ruled  the  county. "  It  is  not  true,  I  repeat,  that  the 
Mormon  vote  was  " always  cast  solid, "  or  that  it  was 
invariably  thrown  to  the  Democratic  side.  In  1840, 
the  year  of  the  famous  "log  cabin"  campaign,  the 
Mormons  as  a  majority  voted  for  the  Whig  electors 
and  helped  to  make  General  Harrison  President  of 
the  United  States.  This  was  probably  due  to  the 
position  of  the  Democratic  presidential  candidate, 
Martin  Van  Buren,  on  the  Mormon  question.  Be- 
garding  the  Missouri  persecutions,  he  had  said  to 
Joseph  Smith,  at  Washington:  " Your  cause  is  just, 
but  I  can  do  nothing  for  you;  if  I  take  up  for  you,  I 
shall  lose  the  vote  of  Missouri."  In  1843  Nauvoo 
went  Democratic,  helping  to  elect  Joseph  P.  Hoge  to 
Congress,  over  Cyrus  Walker,  the  Whig  candidate, 
for  whom,  however,  Joseph  Smith  cast  his  individual 
vote.  At  the  same  election,  the  Mormons  in  Adams 
County  gave  their  ballots  to  O.  H.  Browning,  the 
Whig  candidate  in  that  district.  Most  of  the  Mor- 
mons were  traditionally  Democrats,  but  that  they 
voted  for  their  friends,  instead  of  their  enemies,  and 
used  their  power,  such  as  it  was,  to  put  whom  they 
considered  the  best  men  in  office,  regardless  at 


58          "THE  MOKMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY. " 

times  of  party  affiliations,  is  conceded.  Other 
people  have  done  the  same,  and  have  not  been 
slaughtered  for  it,  nor  even  threatened  with  annihil- 
ation by  their  irritated  fellow  citizens.  Why  should 
the  Mormons  have  been? 

Against  the  unsupported  assertion  that  the  au- 
thorities at  Nauvoo  treated  with  high-handed  con- 
tempt the  laws  of  the  State,  I  place  an  emphatic  de- 
nial, and  as  no  case  in  point  is  cited,  I  do  not  feel 
called  upon  to  prove  a  negative.  The  same  answer  will 
suffice  for  the  allegation  as  to  the  Prophet's  threat  of 
"ultimate  pains"  upon  all  who  would  not  "wade 
knee-deep  in  blood  to  do  his  bidding."  Joseph 
Smith  never  said  it.  Such  of  the  remaining  charges 
as  are  at  all  consequential,  will  be  answered  in  due 
course. 

THE   NAUVOO   CHARTER. 

The  Nauvoo  Charter,  under  which  the  famous 
Municipal  Court,  and  the  no  less  noted  Legion  had 
been  organized,  was  one  of  the  most  liberal  grants  of 
power  ever  bestowed  by  a  legislature  upon  a  munici- 
pality. The  date  of  the  passage  of  this  act,  which 
incorporated  the  City  of  Nauvoo,  was  February  1st, 
1841.  Among  the  legislators  who  voted  for  it  was 
the  great  Lincoln  himself,  who  is  said  to  have  warm- 
ly congratulated  the  Mormons  upon  its  passage. 
Was  his  motive  one  of  "sordid  subserviency," 
Mr.  Hay?  The  Charter  had  been  planned  as  the 
Prophet,  its  framer,  said,  "on  principles  so  broad 
that  any  honest  man  might  dwell  secure  under  its 


"THE  MOKMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY."          59 

protective  influence. "  Under  its  benign  provisions, 
Nauvoo  had  been  made  a  temperance  city — the  sale 
of  liquor  at  retail  being  strictly  prohibited — and  a 
free  city,  where  the  rights  of  all  sects  and  parties 
were  guaranteed  and  jealously  guarded.  The  Nau- 
voo Charter,  whatever  may  be  said  of  u wide  juris- 
dictions," and  the  " privileges'7  accorded  alike  to 
Mormon  and  non-Mormon  citizens,  was  the  bulwark 
of  their  rights  and  liberties  against  the  aggressions 
of  lawless  and  murderous  foes.  The  Municipal  Court 
and  the  habeas  corpus  was  all  that  kept  the  Prophet 
and  his  friends  from  being  kidnapped  and  carried 
back  to  their  cruel  and  illegal  imprisonment  in  Mis- 
souri, a  fate  worse  than  death,  from  which  they  had 
escaped  soon  after  the  terrible  midwinter  expulsion 
of  their  people.  The  mailed  arm  of  the  Legion — an 
all  but  indepenlent  body  of  troops,  officered  by  Mor- 
mons, but  recognized  as  a  part  of  the  regular  militia 
— interposed  to  prevent  a  repetition  of  the  sanguinary 
scenes  of  Haun's  Mill  and  Far  West.  This  Charter 
annulled,  this  rock  of  defense  swept  away,  and  what 
calamities  might  not  come,  what  evils  flourish  un- 
checked, in  the  midst  of  the  peaceable,  moral,  and 
well-meaning  community!  Yet  this  was  the  issue 
proposed  by  the  "Nauvoo  Expositor,"  and  by  those 
in  sympathy  with  the  movement  of  which  it  was  the 
mouthpiece 

THE  EXPOSITOR  ABATEMENT. 

The    principal    charges  made    by   that    paper 
against  the  Prophet  and  his  associates,  were  poly- 


60  "THE   MORMON  PROPHET'S   TRAGEDY. " 

gamy,  polytheism,  and  the  union  of  Church  and 
State.  In  addition  to  these  allegations,  there  were 
various  dark  hints  as  to  certain,  or  uncertain,  crimi- 
nal acts  said  to  have  been  committed  by  them,  and 
more  libels  of  the  same  kind  were  promised  in  the 
future.  In  the  light  of  later  events,  and  the  super- 
human patience  manifested  by  the  Mormon  people 
toward  hostile  and  abusive  publications,  one  almost 
marvels  bow  so  much  indignation  could  have  been 
aroused  by  the  comparatively  tame  and  feeble  tone 
of  the  "Nauvoo  Expositor."  But  this  was  the  be- 
ginning of  their  experience  in  such  matters,  before 
the  much- maligned  community  had  learned  to  bear  and 
forbear  to  the  extent  that  they  have  since  endured. 
It  was  not  only  the  Mormons,  however,  who 
were  provoked  at  the  course  begun  and  threatened 
by  the  "Expositor."  Peace-loving  people  of  all 
parties  and  persuasions  felt  indignant.  Many  wished 
to  take  the  law  into  their  own  hands  and  level  the 
offending  printing  office  to  the  ground.  But  the 
Mormon  leaders,  the  heads  of  the  municipality, 
would  not  sanction  such  proceedings.  Legal  meas- 
ures, instead  of  lawless  force,  were  employed.  At 
sessions  of  the  City  Council,  held  on  Saturday  and 
Monday,  the  8th  and  10th  of  June,  the  character, 
aims,  and  objects  of  the  libelous  sheet  and  its  pub- 
lishers were  fully  ventilated,  and  by  an  almost  unani- 
mous vote, — Counselor  Benjamin  Warrington  alone 
dissenting — the  "Expositor"  was  declared  a  public 
nuisance,  and  the«Mayor  instructed  to  have  it  abated 
without  delay.  Mr.  Warrington,  who  was  not  a 


"THE  MOKMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY."          61 

Mormon,  only  opposed  summary  action.  He  consid- 
ered the  paper  libelous,  and  was  in  favor  of  heavily 
fining  its  publishers.  On  the  evening  of  the  10th,  by 
order  of  Mayor  Smith,  a  force  of  police  under  City 
Marshal  John  P.  Greene,  destroyed  the  printing 
press,  pied  the  type,  and  burned  the  published  sheets 
found  upon  the  premises  in  the  streets  of  Nauvoo. 
The  editors  and  publishers  immediately  left  the 
city. 

THE  PROPHET'S  ARREST  AND  LIBERATION. 

Two  days  later,  upon  a  complaint  sworn  to  by 
Francis  M.  Higbee,  Constable  David  Bettis worth 
came  from  Carthage  to  Nauvoo  and  arrested  for 
"riot,"  Joseph  Smith,  Samuel  Bennett,  John  Tay- 
lor, William  W.  Phelps,  Hyrum  Smith,  John  P. 
Greene,  Stephen  Perry,  Dimick  B.  Huntington,  Jon- 
athan Dunham,  Stephen  Markham,  William  Edwards, 
Jonathan  Harmon,  Jesse  P.  Harmon,  John  Lytle, 
Joseph  W.  Coolidge,  Harvey  D.  Redfield,  Orrin 
Porter  Rockwell  and  Levi  Richards.  The  warrants 
required  that  the  accused  be  brought  before  Justice 
Thomas  Morrison,  at  Carthage,  "or  some  other  just- 
ice of  the  peace  in  Hancock  County. ' '  In  view  of 
this  alternative,  they  requested  the  privilege  of  going 
before  one  of  the  justices  of  Nauvoo;  but  the  con- 
stable insisted  upon  taking  them  to  Carthage.  There- 
upon they  sued  out  writs  of  habeas  corpus,  went  be- 
fore the  Municipal  Court,  which  claimed  jurisdiction 
in  such  cases,  and  after  a  hearing  were  discharged. 
Subsequently,  by  advice  of  Judge  Jesse  B.  Thomas, 


62          "THE  MOKMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY. " 

who  was  visiting  Nauvoo,  Mayor  Smith  and  his 
friends  underwent  examination  before  Justic  Daniel 
H.  Wells,  a  non-Mormon,  and  were  again  dis- 
charged ;  it  appearing  that  their  cause  in  relation  to 
the  "Expositor,"  while  summary,  was  strictly  legal 
under  the  charter  and  ordinances  of  the  city.  Squire 
Wells,  foreseeing  that  not  even  this  would  satisfy  the 
opposition,  advised  the  Prophet  to  be  tried  at  Carth- 
age. [This  was  before  the  mob  had  gathered  in 
force  at  that  point] .  But  the  latter  did  not  feel  that 
his  life  would  be  safe  there,  and  the  sequel  justified 
the  conclusion. 

MAETIAL   LAW   AT   NAUVOO. 

On  the  16th  of  June  Mayor  Smith  issued  a  pro- 
clamation, stating  why  the  act  of  abatement  had 
been  deemed  necessary,  and  declaring  that  the  city 
authorities  were  willing  to  appear,  whenever  the 
Governor  should  require  it,  before  any  high  court  in 
the  State,  and  answer  for  the  correctness  of  their 
conduct.  He  also  warned  the  lawless  element,  now 
gathering  against  Nauvoo,  not  to  interfere  in  the 
affairs  of  that  city.  Governor  Ford  had  previously 
been  informed  of  the  situation,  but  no  reply  had  come 
from  him.  The  excitement  throughout  the  county 
was  intense.  Armed  men  were  taking  the  field  in 
deadly  earnest.  Carthage  and  Warsaw,  the  neigh- 
boring towns,  wore  the  look  of  military  camps.  A 
large  body  of  Missourians  were  said  to  have  joined 
the  Warsaw  forces,  and  five  pieces  of  cannon  and 
other  arms  had  been  forwarded  to  that  point  from 


"THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY."          63 

Quincy  and  other  places.  The  "Warsaw  Signal " 
advocated  the  massacre  of  the  whole  Mormon  com- 
munity, and  both  at  Warsaw  and  Carthage  resolu- 
tions to  that  effect  were  passed  by  acclamation  . 

The  situation  became  so  serious  that  the  Prophet 
felt  compelled  to  take  effectual  means  to  prevent  the 
threatened  assault  and  massacre.  On  the  18th  of 
June,  in  his  capacity  of  Mayor,  he  proclaimed  Nau- 
voo  under  martial  law,  and  called  out  the  Legion  to 
defend  the  city.  In  his  last  address  to  the  soldiers 
and  his  fellow  citizens,  the  lion-hearted  Lieutenant- 
General  said:  "I  call  God  and  angels  to  witness 
that  I  have  unsheathed  my  sword  with  a  firm  and  un- 
alterable determination  that  this  people  shall  have 
their  legal  rights,  and  be  protected  from  mob 
violence,  or  my  blood  shall  be  spilt  upon  the  ground 
like  water,  and  my  body  consigned  to  the  silent 
tomb.  While  I  live  I  will  never  tamely  submit  to  the 
dominion  of  cursed  mobocracy." 

Up  to  June  21st,  no  word  was  received  at  Nau- 
voo  from  Governor  Ford,  though  he  had  been  ap- 
pealed to  for  advice  and  assistance  at  the  very  be- 
ginning of  the  trouble.  The  placing  of  the  city 
under  martial  law — an  act  construed  as  "treason" — 
was  a  dernier  ressort  which  the  Governor  had  ad- 
vised in  view  of  just  such  an  emergency  as  had  now 
arisen.  Doubtless  Ford  thought  of  this  when,  as  an 
historian,  he  penned  the  following  lines,  disposing  of 
the  question  of  treason  as  relating  to  the  Mormon 
leaders :  "Their  actual  guiltiness  of  the  charge  would 
depend  upon  circumstances.  If  their  opponents  had 


64          "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY. " 

been  seeking  to  put  the  law  in  force  in  good  faith, 
and  nothing  more,  then  an  array  of  military  force  in 
open  resistance  to  the  posse  comitatus*  and  the  mili- 
tia of  the  State,  most  probably  would  have  amounted 
to  treason.  But  if  these  opponents  merely  intended 
to  use  the  powers  of  the  law,  the  militia  of  the  State, 
and  the  posse  comitatus  as  cat's-paws  to  compass 
the  possession  of  their  persons  for  the  purpose  of 
murdering  them  afterwards,  as  the  sequel  demon- 
strated the  fact  to  be,  it  might  well  be  doubted 
whether  they  were  guilty  of  treason." 

To  this  be  it  added  that  the  leaders  at  Nauvoo 
did  not  array  their  military  force  against  the  powers 
of  the  County  and  the  State,  but  against  an  armed 
mob  that  was  threatening  the  massacre  of  an  entire 
community.  Just  so  soon  as  the  Governor  arrived 
on  the  scene  and  took  command  of  the  troops  con- 
centrated at  Carthage,  the  aspect  of  affairs  under- 
went a  complete  transformation,  theoretically,  and 
the  Mormons  loyally  changed  front  in  conformity 
thereto.  The  Governor  demanded  that  martial  law 
at  Nauvoo  be  abolished,  and  was  immediately 
obeyed.  He  also  required  that  the  Mayor,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  City  Council,  and  all  persons  concerned 
in  the  destruction  of  the  "Expositor"  press,  come  to 
Carthage  to  be  tried.  This  demand  was  likewise 
complied  with,  though  not  quite  so  promptly.  For  a 
few  hours  the  Prophet  hesitated ;  life  was  still  dear  to 
him,  and  he  felt,  as  he  had  felt  all  along,  that  if  he 

*  Power  of  the  County. 


UTHE   MORMON   PROPHETS   TRAGEDY.  "  65 

went  to  Carthage  he  would  never  return  alive.  On 
the  night  of  the  22nd  he  and  his  brother  Hyrum, 
with  a  few  friends,  crossed  the  Mississippi  and  started 
for  the  Rocky  Mountains ;  but  a  message  from  home 
intercepted  him,  inducing  his  return.  Said  he:  uWe 
are  going  back  to  be  butchered,"  and  resigned  him- 
self to  his  fate. 


THE  PROPHET  SURRENDERS  AND  GOES  TO  CARTHAGE. 

Having  delivered  up,  at  the  Governor's  demand, 
the  arms  of  the  Nauvoo  Legion,  the  Prophet  and  the 
Patriarch,  with  sixteen  others,  on  the  evening  of  the 
24th  set  out  for  Carthage.  They  arrived  there  about 
midnight, — the  distance  was  eighteen  miles, — and 
were  immediately  surrounded  by  armed  ruffians, 
yelling  like  demons  in  their  exultation  over  the 
peaceable  surrender  of  their  intended  victims.  Some 
of  the  soldiers — notably  the  Carthage  Greys — were 
very  abusive  and  threatened  to  shoot  the  unoffend- 
ing prisoners.  Such  was  the  character  and  morale 
of  the  posse  comitatus,  which  the  Nauvoo  authori- 
ties were  charged  with  "  resisting. "  Governor  Ford 
pacified  the  would-be  assassins  and  the  threatened 
murder  was  postponed.  To  the  Prophet  and  his  fel- 
low captives  he  pledged  his  honor  and  the  faith  of 
the  State  of  Illinois,  that  they  should  be  protected 
from  violence  and  given  a  fair  trial . 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  25th  the  defendants  were 
arraigned  before  Justice  Eobert  F.  Smith,  a  captain 
in  the  Carthage  Greys.  All  were  admitted  to  bail,— 


66          "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY." 

not  "discharged, "  as  Mr.  Hay  asserts.  This  was 
on  the  charge  of  "riot."  Almost  immediately  Joseph 
and  Hyrum  Smith  were  arrested  for  "treason,"  and 
thrust  into  Carthage  jail.  John  Taylor,  Willard 
Richards  and  a  few  other  friends  were  allowed  to  ac- 
company them  to  prison.  It  was  the  beginning  of 
the  end.  The  plot  was  fast  consummating.  "The 
law  cannot  reach  them,"  said  their  conspiring  mur- 
derers, "but  powder  and  ball  shall." 

"The  prospect  was  still  not  bad  for  them,"  re- 
marks Mr.  Hay,  with  a  covert  sneer.  "The  sheriff 
was  their  friend.  They  were  sure  of  a  favorable  jury. 
The  Governor — a  man  of  the  best  intentions,  that 
accomplished  nothing  but  patching  the  infernal  pave- 
ment— had  come  over  to  Hancock  County  to  preserve 
law  and  order.  The  Smiths  were  sure  of  a  speedy 
trial  and  acquittal.  And  the  whole  tiresome  play  was 
to  begin  again.  There  was  only  one  way  of  getting 
out  of  the  groove.  The  Deusex  Machina,*  who  alone 
could  settle  matters,  was  the  mob."  This  much 
frankness  is  refreshing. 

GOVERNOR  FORD'S  BROKEN  PLEDGE. 

Next  morning — June  26th — Governor  Ford 
granted  an  interview  to  the  Prophet,  coming  to  the 
prison  for  that  purpose.  During  the  conversation 
Joseph  charged  him  with  knowing  positively  that  he 
and  his  brother  were  innocent  of  treason,  and  de- 
clared that  the  Governor  had  advised  him  to  use  the 

*  The  Deity  outside  the  Machine. 


it 


THE  MORMON|PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY."          67 


Legion  just  as  he  had  done,  in  the  event  of  a  threat- 
ened mobocratic  assault  upon  Nauvoo.  As  to  the 
"Expositor"  affair,  Mayor  Smith  stated  that  he  was 
perfectly  willing  to  be  tried  again,  and  if  found 
guilty  to  make  suitable  reparation.  That  was  a  mat- 
ter for  courts  to  decide,  not  for  mobs  to  settle.  The 
Governor,  at  parting,  renewed  his  promise  that  the 
prisoners  should  be  protected,  and  pledged  his  word 
that  if  he  went  to  Nauvoo,  as  he  contemplated,  he 
would  take  the  Prophet  with  him. 

The  promise  was  not  kept.  Governor  Ford, 
though  a  well-meaning  man,  like  Pilate  of  old,  was 
weak  and  vacillating;  insomuch  that  he  was  a  mere 
tool,  without  intending  to  be,  in  the  hands  of  those 
who  were  plotting  murder.  He  did  go  to  Nauvoo, 
the  next  day,  but  did  not  take  the  Prophet  with  him, 
being  persuaded  by  a  council  of  his  officers,  that  it 
"would  be  highly  inexpedient  and  dangerous. "  It 
was  while  the  Governor  was  at  Nauvoo,  harangu- 
ing the  citizens,  that  the  Carthage  jail  crime  was 
committed. 

LAST   HOURS   OF   THE   PROPHET. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  26th  the  Prophet  and 
the  Patriarch  were  arraigned  before  Justice  Smith 
at  the  Court  House,  on  the  charge  of  treason. 
Their  request  for  time  to  obtain  witnesses  was  reluct- 
antly granted,  and  the  court  then  adjourned  until 
noon  of  the  27th.  Subsequently  the  military  justice, 
without  notifying  the  prisoners,  postponed  the  trial 
until  the  29th.  The  last  night  of  the  brothers  Joseph 


68          "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY.  " 

and  Hyrum  on  earth,  was  passed  in  the  society  of 
their  friends  John  Taylor,  Willard  Richards,  John 
S.  Fullmer,  Stephen  Markham  and  Dan  Jones. 

Next  day— the  fatal  27th — Messrs  Fulmer, 
Markham  and  Jones  were  excluded  from  the  jail, 
and  the  four  leaders  selected  for  the  sacrifice  were 
left  alone.  One  of  these,  Willard  Richards,  was  not 
even  charged  with  crime,  yet  he,  too,  was  marked 
for  death.  The  captives  cheered  each  other  with 
sacred  songs,  and  by  preaching  in  turn  to  the 
guards,  some  of  whom  were  softened  in  their  hearts, 
and  were  promptly  relieved  from  duty,  sterner  men 
being  put  in  their  place.  During  the  day  Cyrus  H. 
Wheelock  was  permitted  to  enter  the  prison,  and  be- 
fore leaving  he  managed  secretly  to  slip  a  small 
pistol— a  pepper-box  revolver — into  Joseph's  pocket. 
This  weapon  and  a  single-barreled  pistol  left  by  Mr. 
Fullmer,  with  two  stout  walking  canes,  were  their 
only  means  of  defense  against  the  horde  of  armed 
assassins  that  soon  after  descended  upon  the  jail. 

THE   MURDERERS   AND   THEIR   CRIME. 

I  will  let  Mr.  Hay  disclose  the  identity  of  the 
murderers,  and  tell  the  story  of  the  crime: 

"There  was  a  large  body  of  militia  at  Carthage, 
and  a  small  regiment  at  Warsaw.  The  Governor, 
not  knowing  how  to  employ  their  idle  hands,  ordered 
them  to  rendezvous  at  Golden' s  Point.  He  sent 
Singleton  to  Nauvoo  to  take  command  of  the  legion 
raised  by  Smith.  Singleton,  on  his  arrival,  found 
two  thousand  men  armed  and  equipped.  Though  a 


"THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY."          69 

little  dismayed  by  the  apparition,  he  inspected  them 
and  reported  to  the  Governor. 

"During  this  day  or  two  the  Governor  seemed 
plagued  by  the  foul  fiend  Flibbertigibbet.  He 
changed  his  mind  every  hour,  with  the  best  inten- 
tions. When  the  troops  had  started  for  Golden' s 
Point,  he  began  to  doubt,  as  he  well  might.  They 
were  going  to  Nauvoo  to  search  for  4bougs'  (a  noun 
which  in  that  day  was  used  to  denote  an  ingenious 
imitation  of  the  current  coin,  manufactured  in  the 
city  of  the  Saints),  and  to  overawe  the  Mormons  by 
a  calm  display  of  force.  What  if  they  searched  for 
other  things,  and  did  not  content  themselves  with  a 
calm  display?  These  thoughts  so  agitated  Governor 
Ford,  that  he  wrote  an  order  on  the  27th,  counter- 
manding former  orders,  and  disbanding  the  militia. 
He  then  mounted  his  horse  and  rode  to  Nauvoo,  to 
deliver  a  firm  and  paternal  address  to  the  Mormons. 
All  this  was  done  with  the  best  intentions. 

"On  the  morning  of  the  27th  of  June,  the  regi- 
ment of  Colonel  Levi  Williams  started  from  Warsaw 
in  obedience  to  the  call  of  the  Governor  to  rendez- 
vous at  Golden' s  Point,  a  settlement  in  the  vicinity 
of  Nauvoo.  They  went  out  in  high  glee,  fully  ex- 
pecting to  march  to  the  city  of  the  Saints,  and  not 
doubting  that  before  they  left  it,  some  occasion  would 
arise  which  would  make  it  necessary  to  remove  this 
standing  scandal  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  There  were 
none  but  words  of  law  and  order  on  their  lips;  but 
every  man  clearly  understood  that  Nauvoo  was  to  be 
destroyed  before  they  returned.  A  public  meeting 


70  UTBE   MORMON  PROPHET'S   TRAGEDY." 

in  Warsaw  had  unanimously  ' Resolved,  that  we  will 
forthwith  proceed  to  Nauvoo  and  exterminate  the 
city  and  its  people ; '  a  manifesto  which  seemed  too 
peppery  even  for  the  palate  of  Mr.  Sharp,  editor  of 
the  Signal,  who,  when  he  published  it,  added  the 
saving  clause,  'if  necessary.'  'Of  course  it  will 
be  necessary,'  said  these  law-abiding  militia-men,  as 
they  marched  out  of  Warsaw  on  the  Nauvoo  road. 

" Order  reigned  in  Warsaw — for  the  men  were 
all  gone.  The  whole  male  adult  population,  with 
trifling  exceptions,  were  in  Williams'  regiment. 
Among  the  captains  were  William  N.  Grover,  after- 
wards a  distinguished  lawyer  of  St  Louis,  and  United 
States  attorney  for  Missouri — an  eminently  respect- 
able and  conservative  man;  Thomas  C.  Sharp,  editor 
of  the  Signal,  who  also  on  this  day  sowed  the  last  of 
his  wild  oats,  and  was  afterwards  principal  of  the 
public  school,  and  greatly  esteemed  as  county  judge; 
Jacob  C.  Davis,  then  State  Senator,  afterwards 
member  of  Congress  from  that  district. 

"They  arrived  near  noon  at  some  deserted  shan- 
ties, about  seven  miles  from  Warsaw,  that  had  been 
built  and  abandoned  in  that  flurry  and  collapse  of 
internal  improvement  that  passed  over  the  State  in 
1838.  There  they  were  met  by  Mr.  David  Matthews, 
a  well-known  citizen  of  Warsaw,  who  had  ridden 
rapidly  from  Carthage  with  an  order  from  the  Gov- 
ernor, disbanding  ihe  regiment.  The  Governor,  fear- 
ing he  could  not  control  the  inflammable  material  he 
had  gathered  together,  had  determined  to  scatter  it 
again. 


"THE  MOKMON  PKOPHET'S  TKAGEDY."          71 

" Colonel  Williams  read  the  Governor's  order. 
Some  of  the  anti-Mormon  warriors,  blessed  with  robust 
western  appetites,  looked  at  the  sun,  and  concluded 
that  they  could  get  home  by  dinner  time,  and  under 
the  influence  of  this  inspiring  idea  started  off:  at 
quick-step.  Captain  Grover  soon  found  himself 
without  a  company.  Captain  Aldrich  essayed  a 
speech  calling  for  volunteers  for  Carthage.  'He  did 
not  make  a  fair  start,'  says  the  chronicle,  'and 
Sharp  came  up  and  took  it  off  his  hands.'  Sharp, 
being  a  spirited  and  impressive  talker,  soon  had  a 
respectable  squad  about  him.  Captain  Davis,  on  the 
contrary,  was  sorely  perplexed.  It  was  heavy 
weather  for  him.  He  was  a  professional  politician, 
and  dearly  loved  both  Mormon  and  anti-Mormon 
votes.  He  was  so  backward  in  coming  forward  that 
his  company  left  him  in  disgust,  and  followed  the 
fiery  Grover,  whose  company  had  gone  home  to  din- 
ner. Davis  still  could  not  make  up  his  mind  to  go 
home,  but  'got  into  Calvin  Cole's  wagon  and  followed 
the  boys  at  a  distance;'  so  that  he  had  at  last  the 
luck  to  be  in  at  the  closing  scene,  and  the  honor  to 
be  indicted  with  the  rest.  The  speeches  of  Grover 
and  Sharp  were  rather  vague ;  the  purpose  of  murder 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  hinted.  They  protested 
against  'being  made  the  tools  and  puppets  of  Tommy 
Ford.'  They  were  going  to  Carthage  to  see  the 
boys,  and  talk  things  over.  Some  of  the  cooler 
heads,  such  as  Dr.  Hay,*  surgeon  of  the  regiment, 

*  Probably  Colonel  Hay's  own  father,  Dr.  Charles  Hay, 


72  "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY. " 

denounced  the  proceeding  and  went  at  once  back  to 
Warsaw. 

"While  they  were  waiting  at  the  shanties,  a 
courier  came  in  from  the  Carthage  Grays.  It  is  im- 
possible at  this  day  to  declare  exactly  the  purport  of 
his  message.  It  is  usually  reported  and  believed 
that  he  brought  an  assurance  from  the  officers  of  his 
company  that  they  would  be  found  on  guard  at  the 
jail  where  the  Smiths  were  confined;  that  they  would 
make  no  real  resistance, — merely  enough  to  save  ap- 
pearances. 

uThis  message  was  not  communicated  to  the 
men.  They  followod  their  leaders  off  on  the  road  to 
Carthage,  with  rather  vague  intentions.  They  were 
annoyed  at  the  prospect  of  their  picnic  coming  so 
readily  to  a  close,  at  losing  the  fun  of  sacking  Nau- 
voo,  at  having  to  go  home  without  material  for  a  sin- 
gle romance.  Nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  started 
with  their  captains,  but  they  gradually  dwindled  in 
number  to  seventy- five.  These  trudged  along  under 
the  fierce  summer  sun  of  the  prairies  towards  the 
town  where  the  cause  of  all  the  trouble  and  confus- 
sion  of  the  last  few  years  awaited  them.  They  sang 
on  the  way  a  rude  parody  of  a  camp-meeting  hymn 
called  in  the  West  the  'Hebrew  children:' 

"Where  now  is  the  Prophet  Joseph? 
Where  now  is  the  Prophet  Joseph? 
Where  now  is  the  Prophet  Joseph? 
Safe  in  Carthage  jail." 

The  farther  they  walked  the  more  the  idea  im- 
pressed itself  upon  them  that  now  was  the  time  to 


"THE  MOKMON  PKOPHET'S  TRAGEDY."          73 

finish  the  matter  totally.  The  unavowed  design  of 
the  leaders  communicated  itself  magnetically  to  the 
men,  until  the  entire  company  became  fused  into  one 
mass  of  bloodthirsty  energy.  By  an  excess  of  pre- 
caution, they  did  not  go  directly  into  the  town,  but 
made  a  long  detour,  so  as  to  come  in  by  the  road 
leading  from  Nauvoo. 

"The  jail  where  the  Smiths  were  confined  is 
situated  at  the  extreme  northwestern  edge  of  the  dis- 
mal village,  at  the  end  of  a  long,  ill-kept  street 
whose  middle  is  a  dusty  road,  and  whose  sides  are 
gay  with  stramonium  and  dog- fennel.  As  the  aven- 
gers came  in  sight  of  the  mean-looking  building  that 
held  their  prey,  the  sleeping  tiger  that  lurks  in  every 
human  heart  sprang  up  in  theirs,  and  they  quick- 
ened their  pace  to  a  run.  There  was  no  need  of 
orders, — no  possibility  of  checking  them  now.  The 
guards  were  hustled  away  from  the  door,  good- 
naturedly  resisting  until  they  were  carefully  disarmed. 
Their  commander,  Lieutenant  Frank  Worrell,  after- 
wards gave  this  testimony  on  the  trial,  which  we 
copy  for  its  curious  and  cynical  bonhomie  : 

"  'I  was  one  of  the  guards  at  the  jail.  Saw 
Smith  when  he  was  killed.  Saw  none  of  the  defend- 
ants at  the  jail!  Suppose  there  were  one  or  two  hundred 
there.  They  stayed  three  or  four  minutes.  They 
formed  in  front  of  the  jail  and  made  a  rush.  Kneiv 
none  that  came  up.  Saw  Smith  die, — 

was  within  ten  feet  of  him.  *        Per- 

haps a  minute  after  he  fell  I  saw  him  die .  * 

I    was    pushed    and   shoved  some   fifty  ^feet.         * 


74          "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY." 

*  *  Did  not  see  Sharp,  Grover,  or  Davis.  It 
was  so  crowded  I  could  not  see  much,  I  know  about 
one  third  of  the  men  in  the  county,  but  none  at  the 
jail.  I  might  have  been  some  scared.' 

"It  would  be  difficult  to  imagine  anything  cooler 
than  this  quiet  perjury  to  screen  a  murder.  Yet  the 
strangest  part  of  this  strange  story  is  that  Frank 
Worrell  was  a  generous  young  fellow,  and  the  men 
with  whom  he  carried  out  the  ghastly  comedy  of  at- 
tack and  resistance  at  the  door  of  the  prison — Sharp 
and  Grover — were  good  citizens,  educated  and  irre- 
proachable, who  still  live  to  enjov  the  respect  and 
esteem  of  all  who  know  them.  There  is  but  one 
force  mighty  enough  in  the  world  to  twist  such 
minds  and  consciences  so  fearfully  awry,  and  that 
is  the  wild  suspicion  bred  of  civil  strife.  A  few 
months  of  this  minature  war  in  Hancock  County  had 
sufficed  to  possess  many  of  the  prominent  actors 
with  the  spirit  of  demons;  and  in  the  mind  of  any  anti- 
Mormon  there  was  nothing  more  criminal  in  the  shoot- 
ing of  Smith  than  in  the  slaying  of  a  wolf  or  panther. 

"This  jolly,  good-natured  Worrell  was  himself 
murdered  by  Mormon  assassins  not  long  after.  He 
was  riding  with  a  friend.  A  shot  was  heard  from  a 
thicket.  'That  was  a  rifle,'  said  the  friend.  'Yes, 
and  I've  got  it,'  said  Worrell,  coolly.  He  fell  from 
his  horse  and  died.  I  have  seen,  as  a  child,  his 
grave  at  Warsaw.  A  rude,  wooden  head-board, 
bearing  this  legend:  'He  who  is  without  enemies  is 
unworthy  of  friends,' — not  very  orthodox,  but  per- 
haps as  true  as  most  epitaphs. 


"THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY."         75 

" While  Worrell, little  thinking  of  his  tombstone, 
was  struggling  with  his  friendly  assailants,  as  many 
as  the  narrow  entry  would  hold  had  rushed  into  the 
open  door  and  up  the  cramped  little  stairs.  Smith 
and  his  brother  had  been  that  day  removed  from 
their  cells  and  given  comparative  liberty  in  a  large, 
airy  room  on  the  first  floor  above.  This  afternoon 
they  were  receiving  the  visits  of  two  Mormon  breth- 
ren, Richards  and  Taylor.  They  heard  the  row  at 
the  door  and  the  rush  on  the  stairs,  and  instinctively 
barred  their  door  by  pressing  their  weight  against 
it.  The  mob  fired  at  the  door,  fiyrum  Smith  fell, 
exclaiming,  'I'm  a  dead  man.'  Taylor  ciawled  un- 
der the  bed,  with  a  bullet  in  the  calf  of  his  leg. 
Eichards  hid  himself  behind  the  opening  door,  in 
mortal  terror.  He  afterwards  lied  terribly  about  the 
affair,  saying  he  stood  calmly  in  the  center  of  the 
room,  warding  off  the  bullets  with  a  consecrated 
wand. 

"Joe  Smith  died  bravely.  He  stood  by  the 
jamb  of  the  door  and  fired  four  shots,  bringing  his 
man  down  every  time.  He  shot  an  Irishman  named 
Wills,  who  was  in  the  affair  from  his  congenital  love 
of  a  brawl,  in  the  arm;  Gallagher,  a  Southerner  from 
the  Mississippi  Bottom,  in  the  face;  Voorhees,  a 
half -grown  hobbledehoy  from  Bear  Creek,  in  the 
shoulder;  and  another  gentleman,  whose  name  I  will 
not  mention,  as  he  is  prepared  to  prove  an  alibi,  and 
besides  stands  six  feet  two  in  his  moccasins. 

"Smith  had  two  loaded  six-barrelled  revolvers 
in  his  room.  How  a  man  on  trial  for  capital  offenses 


76          "TEE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY." 

came  to  be  supplied  with  such  luxuries  is  a  mystery 
that  perhaps  only  one  man  could  fully  have  solved; 
and  as  General  Deming,  the  Jack-Mormon  sheriff, 
died  soon  after,  and  left  no  explanation  of  the  mat- 
ter, investigation  is  effectually  baffled.  But  the  four 
shots  which  I  have  chronicled,  and  the  two  which 
had  no  bullet,  exhausted  one  pistol,  and  the  enemy 
gave  Smith  no  time  to  use  the  other.  Severely 
wounded  as  he  was,  he  ran  to  the  window,  which  was 
open  to  receive  the  fresh  June  air,  and  half  leaped, 
half  fell,  into  the  jail  yard  below.  With  his  last  dy- 
ing energies  he  gathered  himself  up,  and  leaned  in  a 
sitting  posture  against  the  rude  stone  well- curb.  His 
stricken  condition,  his  vague  wandering  glances,  ex- 
cited no  pity  in  the  mob  thirsting  for  his  life.  They 
had  not  seen  the  handsome  fight  he  had  made  in  the 
jail;  there  was  no  appeal  to  chivalry  (there  is  chival- 
ry on  the  borders,  as  in  all  semi- barbarous  regions) . 
A  squad  of  Missourians  who  were  standing  by  the 
fence  levelled  their  pieces  at  him,  and,  before  they 
could  see  him  again  for  the  smoke  they  made,  Joe 
Smith  was  dead. 

"Meanwhile,  the  Carthage  Greys  were  approach- 
ing. They  had  been  called  out  half  an  hour  before, 
and  formed  on  the  Court-house  square,  by  Captain 
Robert  Smith,  with  great  precision  and  deliberation 
that  give  rise,  under  the  circumstances,  to  somewhat 
wide  conjecture.  Captain  Smith  had  not  previously 
been  regarded  as  a  martinet,  but  this  afternoon  he 
could  have  given  points  to  a  Potsdam  corporal.  He 
stopped  his  company  half  a  dozen  times,  to  remon- 


"THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY."          77 

strate  against  defects  in  their  alignment;  and  it  was 
owing  to  his  extreme  conscientiousness  about  disci- 
pline that  they  arrived  at  the  jail  when  all  was  over. 
Let  me  add  that  Captain  Smith  (for  it  seemed  fated 
that  everyone  connected  with  this  affair  should  have 
greatness  thrust  upon  him)  became  in  the  great  war 
General  Robert  F.  Smith,  and  marched  his  troops 
from  Hancock  County  to  the  Atlantic  with  more 
speed,  if  less  science,  than  he  displayed  in  leading 
his  squad  that  day  from  the  Court-house  to  the 
jail. 

"The  moment  the  work  was  done, the  calmness  of 
horror  succeeded  the  fever  of  fanatical  rage.  The 
assassins  hurried  away  from  the  jail,  and  took  the 
road  to  Warsaw  in  silence  and  haste.  They  went 
home  at  a  killing  pace  over  the  wide,  dusty  prairie. 
Warsaw  is  eighteen  miles  from  Carthage ;  the  Smiths 
were  killed  at  half-past  five:  at  a  quarter  before 
eight  the  returning  crowd  began  to  drag  their  weary 
limbs  through  the  main  street  of  Warsaw,— at  such 
an  astounding  rate  of  speed  had  the  lash  of  their  own 
thoughts  driven  them. 

"The  town  was  instantly  put  in  such  attitude  of 
defense  as  its  limited  means  permitted.  The  women 
and  children  were  ferried  across  the  river  to  a  village 
on  the  Missouri  shore.  The  men  kept  guard  night 
and  day  in  the  hazel  thickets  around  the  town.  Ev- 
rybody  expected  sudden  and  exemplary  vengeance 
from  the  Mormons. 

"Nothing  of  the  kind  took  place.  The  appalling 
disaster  that  had  fallen  upon  the  Church  gave  rise 


78  UTHE    MOKMON   PROPHETS    TRAGEDY." 

to  no  spirit  of  revenge.  It  was  long  before  the  Mor- 
mons recovered  from  the  stupor  of  their  terror  and 
despair.  A  delegation  went  to  Carthage  to  receive 
their  dead.  They  brought  them  home  and  buried 
them  with  honors  becoming  the  generals  of  the  le- 
gion. The  seceders,  panic-stricken,  fled  from  Nau- 
voo  and  never  re  turned. " 

Aside  from  the  flippant  heartlessness  of  the 
foregoing  narrative,  the  spirit  and  style  of  which 
would  better  become  the  description  of  a  picnic  than 
of  the  terrible  tragedy  here  chronicled,  I  have  little 
fault  to  find  with  the  story  in  the  main.  Some  of 
the  statements  are  open  to  criticism,  but  the  accu- 
racy of  the  general  account  I  will  not  question. 
Let  me  ask,  however,  what  Mr.  Hay  would  have 
thought,  if  some  cultured,  Christian  author,  south 
of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  on  a  certain  sad  morn- 
ing in  April,  1865,  had  written  thus  of  the  as- 
sassination of  the  President  of  the  United  States: 
"Abe  Lincoln  was  killed  at  Ford's  Theatre,  last 
night;  he  died  bravely;  his  murderers  are  good  citi- 
zens, educated  and  irreproachable,  who  still  live  to 
enjoy  the  respect  and  esteem  of  all  who  know 
them." 

The  admiration  expressed  for  the  "jolly,  good- 
natured  Worrell,"  that  "generous  young  fellow," 
who,  with  the  murderous- minded  Sharp  and  other 
"irreproachables,"  there  "sowed  his  wild  oats," 
irrigating  them  with  the  blood  of  innocent  men, 
speaks  for  itself,  without  any  comment  of  mine. 
Worrell  was  not  killed  by  assassins,  as  claimed.  He 


"THE  MOBMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY. "          79 

lost  his  life  in  an  encounter  between  a  mob  and  a 
sheriff's  posse,  the  latter  summoned  from  Nauvoo 
(after  the  posse  comitatus  had  failed  to  respond  to 
the  call  of  that  officer)  to  put  down  rioters  who  were 
pillaging  and  burning  Mormon  homes.  Worrell  was 
shot  by  order  of  Sheriff  Backenstos,  a  non-Mormon, 
who  commanded  one  of  the  posse  to  fire  upon  him. 
Mr.  Hay  omits  to  mention  that  the  mob  which 
assaulted  Carthage  jail  had  previously  blackened 
their  faces,  in  order  to  conceal  their  identity.  His 
gratuitous  fling  at  Sheriff  Deming  (who  furnished  no 
weapons  to  the  prisoners)  is  as  unjust  as  his  slight- 
ing reference  to  Willard  Richards,  whom  he  accuses 
of  cowardice  and  falsehood  in  connection  with  the 
massacre.  Who  it  was  that  misrepresented  the  af- 
fair will  be  evident  to  the  reader  after  perusing  Dr. 
Richards'  terse,  graphic,  and  withal  modest  nar- 
rative, written  at  the  time  upon  the  scene  of  the 
tragedy,  and  published  originally  in  the  "Times  and 
Seasons"  at  Nauvoo.  It  is  entitled 

UTWO  MINUTES  IN   JAIL: 

UA  shower  of  musket  balls  were  thrown  up  the 
stairway  against  the  door  of  the  prison  in  the  sec- 
ond story,  folio  wed  by  many  rapid  footsteps. 

"While  Generals  Joseph  and  Hyrum  Smith,  Mr. 
Taylor  and  myself,  who  were  in  the  front  chamber, 
closed  the  door  of  our  room  against  the  entry  at  the 
head  of  the  stairs,  and  placed  ourselves  against  it, 
there  being  no  lock  on  the  door,  and  no  catch  that 
was  useable. 


80  "THE   MORMON   PROPHET'S   TRAGEDY. " 

"The  door  is  a  common  panel,  and  as  soon  as 
we  heard  the  feet  at  the  stairs  head,  a  ball  was  sent 
through  the  .door,  which  passed  between  us,  and 
showed  that  our  enemies  were  desperadoes,  and  we 
must  change  our  position. 

"General  Joseph  Smith,  Mr.  Taylor  and  myself, 
sprang  back  to  the  front  part  of  the  room,  and  Gen- 
eral Hyrum  Smith  retreated  two-thirds  across  the 
chamber,  in  front  of  and  facing  the  door. 

"A  ball  was  sent  through  the  door,  which  hit 
Hyrum  on  the  side  of  the  nose,  when  he  fell  back- 
wards, extended  at  length,  without  moving  his  feet. 

"From  the  holes  in  his  vest  (the  day  was  warm, 
and  none  had  their  coats  on  but  myself),  panta- 
loons, drawers  and  shirt,  it  appears  evident  that  a 
ball  must  have  been  thrown  from  without,  through 
the  window,  which  entered  his  back  on  the  right 
side,  and  passing  through  lodged  against  his  watch, 
which  was  in  his  right  vest  pocket,  completely  pul- 
verizing the  crystal  and  face,  tearing  off  the  hands, 
and  mashing  the  whole  body  of  the  watch.  At  the 
same  time  the  ball  from  the  door  entered  his  nose. 

"As  he  struck  the  floor  he  exclaimed  emphati- 
cally, 'I'm  a  dead  man.'  Joseph  looked  towards 
him  and  responded,  'Oh,  dear,  Brother  Hyrum!' 
and  opening  the  door  two  or  three  inches  with  his 
left  hand,  discharged  one  barrel  of  a  six  shooter 
(pistol)  at  random  in  the  entry,  from  whence  a  ball 
grazed  Hyrum' s  breast  and  entering  his  throat  passed 
into  his  head,  while  the  other  muskets  were  aimed  at 
him,  and  some  balls  hit  him. 


"THE  MOKMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY."          81 

u  Joseph  continued  snapping  his  revolver  round 
the  casing  of  the  door  into  the  space  as  before, 
three  barrels  of  which  missed  fire ;  while  Mr.  Tay- 
lor, with  a  walking  stick  stood,  by  his  side,  and 
knocked  down  the  bayonets  and  muskets  which  were 
constantly  discharging  through  the  doorway,  while  I 
stood  by  him  ready  to  lend  any  assistance,  with 
another  stick,  but  could  not  come  within  striking 
distance  without  going  directly  before  the  muzzles  of 
the  guns. 

' 'When  the  revolver  failed,  we  had  no  more  fire- 
arms, and  expected  an  immediate  rush  of  the  mob, 
and  the  doorway  full  of  muskets  half  way  in  the 
room,  and  no  hope  but  instant  death  from  within. 

4 'Mr.  Taylor  rushed  into  the  window,  which  is 
some  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  from  the  ground.  When 
his  body  was  nearly  on  a  balance,  a  ball  from  the 
door  within  entered  his  leg,  and  a  ball  from  without 
struck  his  watch,  a  patent  lever,  in  his  vest  pocket, 
near  the  left  breast,  and  smashed  it  into  'pie,7  leav- 
ing the  hands  standing  at  5  o'clock,  16  minutes  and 
26  seconds ;  the  force  of  which  ball  threw  him  back 
on  the  floor,  and  he  rolled  under  the  bed  which  stood 
by  his  side,  where  he  lay  motionless,  the  mob  con- 
tinuing to  fire  upon  him,  cutting  away  a  piece  of 
flesh  from  his  left  hip  as  large  as  a  man's  hand,  and 
were  hindered  only  by  my  knocking  down  muzzles 
with  a  stick,  while  they  continued  to  reach  their 
guns  into  the  room,  probably  left-handed,  and  aimed 
their  discharges  so  far  round  as  almost  to  reach  us 
in  the  corner  of  the  room,  to  where  we  retreated  and 


82          "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY." 

dodged,  and  then  I  recommenced  the  attack  with  my 
stick. 

"Joseph  attempted,  as  the  last  resort,  to  leap 
the  same  window  from  whence  Mr.  Taylor  fell,  when 
two  balls  pierced  him  from  the  door,  and  one  en- 
tered the  right  breast  from  without,  and  he  fell 
outward,  exclaiming,  *O  Lord,  my  God!'  As  his  feet 
went  out  of  the  window,  my  head  went  in,  the  balls 
whistling  all  around.  He  fell  on  his  left  side,  a  dead 
man. 

"At  this  instant  the  cry  was  raised,  'He's  leaped 
the  window!'  and  the  mob  on  the  stairs  and  in  the 
entry  ran  out. 

"I  withdrew  from  the  window,  thinking  it  of  no 
use  to  leap  out  on  a  hundred  bayonets,  then  around 
General  Smith's  body. 

'  'Not  satisfied  with  this  I  again  reached  my  head 
out  of  the  window,  and  watched  some  seconds  to  see 
if  there  were  any  signs  of  life,  regardless  of  my  own, 
determined  to  see  the  end  of  him  I  loved.  Being 
fully  satisfied  that  he  was  dead,  with  a  hundred  men 
near  the  body  and  more  coming  round  the  corner  of 
the  jail,  and  expecting  a  return  to  our  room,  I  rushed 
towards  the  prison  door,  at  the  head  of  the  stairs, 
and  through  the  entry  from  whence  the  firing  had 
proceeded,  to  learn  if  the  doors  into  the  prison  were 
open. 

"When  near  the  entry,  Mr.  Taylor  cried  out, 
1  Take  me.'  I  pressed  my  way  until  I  found  all  the 
doors  unbarred;  returning  instantly,  I  caught  Mr.  Tay- 
lor under  my  arm,  and  rushed  by  the  stairs  into  the 


"THE  MOKMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY."          83 

dungeon,  or  inner  prison,  stretched  him  on  the  floor 
and  covered  him  with  a  bed  in  such  a  manner  as  not 
likely  to  be  perceived,  expecting  an  immediate  return 
of  the  mob. 

"I  said  to  Mr.  Taylor,  'This  is  a  hard  case  to 
lay  you  on  the  floor,  but  if  your  wounds  are  not  fatal, 
I  want  you  to  live  to  tell  the  story. '  I  expected  to 
be  shot  the  next  moment,  and  stood  before  the  door 
awaiting  the  onset. " 

Nothing  is  said  here  of  "warding  off  the  bullets 
with  a  consecrated  wand. "  Willard  Richards  never 
made  such  a  statement,  nor  did  any  friend  of  his 
ever  make  it  in  his  behalf.  It  is  a  fair  sample  of 
anti- Mormon  unfairness ;  one  of  the  hearsays  adopted 
by  Mr.  Hay  as  a  fact;  one  of  the  fictions  with  which 
his  narrative  is  filled. 

What  Dr.  Richards  expected  and  awaited  almost 
happened.  While  the  heroically  cool  and  self-pos- 
sessed man  was  caring  for  his  wounded  friend  in  the 
inner  part  of  the  prison,  a  portion  of  the  mob  again 
rushed  up  stairs  to  finish  the  fiendish  work  already 
more  than  half  done.  Finding  only  the  dead  body 
of  Hyrum  Smith  in  the  front  apartment,  and  suppos- 
ing the  other  prisoners  to  have  escaped,  they  were 
again  descending  the  stairs  when  a  loud  cry  was 
heard,  'The  Mormons  are  coming!7  Thinking  the 
inhabitants  of  Nauvoo  were  upon  them, to  avenge  the 
murder  of  the  Prophet,  the  whole  band  of  assassins 
broke  and  fled,  seeking  refuge  in  the  neighboring 
forest.  Their  grotesque  fear  was  shared  by  the  peo- 
ple of  Carthage  in  general,  who  abandoned  their 


84          "THE  MOKMON  PKOPHET'S  TRAGEDY. " 

homes  and  fled  pell  mell,  terrified  by  the  vain  thought 
of  a  wrathful  visitation  from  the  City  of  the  Saints. 

Equally  groundless  with  the  assertion  relative  to 
Dr.  Richards,  is  the  one  attributing  "terror  and  des- 
pair" to  the  betrayed  and  stricken  community  at 
Nauvoo.  There  was  no  terror;  there  was  no  des- 
pair. It  was  a  God-fearing  people,  possessing  their 
souls  with  characteristic  patience  and  resignation, 
leaving  vengeance  to  Him  who  has  said,  "I  will  re- 
pay." Had  the  Mormons  wanted  blood  for  blood, — 
though  a  hecatomb  of  such  lives  as  had  robbed  them 
of  their  Prophet  and  their  Patriarch  would  have  been 
no  compensation, — the  murderous  wretches  would 
have  bit  the  dust,  though  it  had  taken  the  whole 
power  of  the  dreaded  Legion  to  bring  them  low. 
Had  there  been  any  "Danites,"  they  would  have 
done  their  destructive  work  then  and  there.  If  the 
Mormons  had  been  the  "bad  neighbors,"  turbulent 
and  troublesome,  that  they  were  falsely  represented 
as  being,  all  Hancock  County  would  have  been  devas- 
tated by  them  in  a  reckless  fury  of  retaliation.  But  as 
Mr.  Hay  says,  "nothing  of  the  kind  took  place.  The 
appalling  disaster  that  had  fallen  upon  the  Church 
gave  rise  to  no  spirit  of  revenge."  And  there  is 
nothing  that  so  successfully  confutes  the  lying  stories 
of  the  rascally  banditti  who  slandered  the  Church  and 
its  leaders  in  order  to  make  more  easy  the  horrid 
murder  they  had  planned,  than  the  god-like  self-con- 
trol exhibited  by  the  Latter-day  Saints  in  that  su- 
preme hour  of  trial. 

Just  here  will  be  a  good  place  to  insert  another 


"THE  MOKMON  PROPHET'S  TBAGEDY."          85 

paragraph  from  Ford's  History  of  Illinois,  in  which 
the  author  speaks  of  the  cunning  tactics  of  the  vill- 
ainous conspirators,  who  found  it  necessary  to  black- 
en the  fair  fame  of  the  Mormon  people,  as  a  prelude 
to  the  assassination  of  their  Prophet. 

UA  system  of  excitement  and  agitation  was  art- 
fully planned  and  executed  with  tact.  It  consisted 
in  spreading  reports  and  rumors  of  the  most  fearful 
character.  As  examples:— On  the  morning  before 
my  arrival  at  Carthage,  1  was  awakened  at  an  early 
hour  by  the  frightful  report,  which  was  asserted 
with  confidence  and  apparent  consternation,  that 
the  Mormons  had  already  commenced  the  work  of 
burning,  destruction  and  murder;  and  that  every  man 
capable  of  bearing  arms  was  instantly  wanted  at 
Carthage,  for  the  protection  of  the  county.  We  lost 
no  time  in  starting;  but  when  we  arrived  at  Carthage 
we  could  hear  no  more  concerning  this  story.  Again: 
During  the  few  days  that  the  militia  were  encamped 
at  Carthage,  frequent  applications  were  made  to  me 
to  send  a  force  here  and  a  force  there,  and  a  force 
all  about  the  country,  to  prevent  murders,  robberies, 
and  larcenies,  which,  it  was  said,  were  threatened  by 
the  Mormons.  No  such  forces  were  sent;  nor  were 
any  such  offenses  committed  at  that  time,  except  the 
stealing  of  some  provisions,  and  there  was  never  the 
least  proof  that  this  was  done  by  a  Mormon.  Again: 
On  my  late  visit  to  Hancock  County,  I  was  informed 
by  some  of  their  violent  enemies,  that  the  larcenies 
of  the  Mormons  had  become  unusually  numerous  and 
insufferable.  They  indeed  admitted  that  but  little 


86  "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY. " 

had  been  done  in  this  way  in  their  immediate  vicin- 
ity. But  they  insisted  that  sixteen  horses  had  been 
stolen  by  the  Mormons  in  one  night,  near  Lima,  in 
the  County  of  Adams.  At  the  close  of  the  expedi- 
tion, I  called  at  this  same  town  of  Lima,  and  upon 
inquiry  was  told  that  no  horses  had  been  stolen  in 
that  neighborhood,  but  that  sixteen  horses  had  been 
stolen  in  one  night  in  Hancock  County.  This  last 
informant,  being  told  of  the  Hancock  story,  again 
changed  the  venue  to  another  distant  settlement,  in 
the  northern  edge  of  Adams." 

TRIAL  AND  ACQUITTAL  OF  THE  MURDERERS. 

uThe  reaction  now  began."  (I  am  again  quoting 
from  Mr.  Hay.)  "At  the  August  elections  the  Jack- 
Mormon  ticket,  as  it  was  called,  bearing  candidates 
favorable  to  the  Mormons,  was  chosen  by  an  unex- 
ampled majority.  The  press  of  the  State  was  unani- 
mous in  its  condemnation  of  the  Warsaw  men,  with  a 
few  exceptions,  when  special  correspondents  had  vis- 
ited the  county.  These  were  almost  invariably  apolo- 
gists of  the  killing.  It  is  curious  to  note  the  sudden 
change  of  the  anti-Mormon  journals  from  the  fierce 
and  aggressive  tone  which  they  held  the  week  before, 
to  the  sullen  attitude  of  self-defense  they  assumed 
the  week  after  the  Carthage  tragedy.  Here  is  an 
extract  from  an  article  by  Sharp  in  the  ' Signal,' 
which  may  show  how  much  easier  it  is  to  kill  a  man 
than  to  justify  the  killing: 

"  'The  St.  Louis  'Gazette'  says  that  the  men 
that  killed  the  Smiths  were  a  pack  of  cowards.  Now 


UTHE   MOKMON  PROPHET'S   TRAGEDY."  87 

our  view  of  the  matter  is,  that  instead  of  cowardice, 
they  exhibited  foolhardy  courage,  for  they  must  have 
known  or  thought  that  they  would  bring  down  on 
themselves  the  vengeance  of  the  Mormons.  True, 
the  act  of  an  armed  body  going  to  the  jail  and  killing 
prisoners  does  appear  at  first  sight  dastardly,  but  we 
look  at  it  as  though  these  men  were  the  execu- 
tioners of  justice ;  and  their  act  is  no  more  cowardly 
than  is  the  act  of  the  hangman  in  stretching  up  a 
defenseless  convict  who  is  incapable  of  resistance. 
If  any  other  mode  could  have  been  devised,  or  any 
other  time  selected,  it  would  have  been  better;  but, 
as  we  have  heard  others  say,  we  are  satisfied  that  it 
is  done,  and  care  not  to  philosophize  on  the  modus 
operandi. ' 

"It  was  impossible  that  the  matter  should  be 
allowed  to  pass  entirely  unnoticed  by  the  law.  Be- 
sides, Governor  Ford,  who  considered  the  murder  a 
personal  disrespect  to  himself,  was  really  anxious  to 
bring  the  perpetrators  to  justice.  Bills  of  indictment 
were  found  at  the  October  term  of  court  against  Levi 
Williams,  Mark  Aldrich,  Jacob  0.  Davis,  William  N. 
Grover,  Thomas  C.  Sharp,  John  Wills,  William 
Voorhees,  William  Gallagher  and  one  Allen.  They 
were  based  on  the  testimony  of  two  idle  youths, 
named  Brackenbury  and  Daniels,  who  had  accom- 
panied the  expedition  from  Warsaw  to  Carthage  on 

the  27th  of  June,  and  had  seen  the  whole  affair." 

*  *  *  * 

"The  next  May,  all  the  defendants  appeared, 
according  to  agreement,  to  stand  their  trial.  They 


88  "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY.  " 

began  by  filing  their  affidavit  that  the  county  com- 
missioners who  selected  the  array  of  jurors  for  the 
week  were  prejudiced  against  them;  that  the  sheriff 
and  his  deputies  were  unfitted  by  prejudice  to  select 
the  talesmen  that  might  be  required.  They  there- 
fore entered  a  motion  to  quash  the  array  of  jurors, 
to  set  aside  the  sheriff  and  his  deputies,  and  to  ap- 
point elisors  to  select  a  jury  for  the  case.  After 
argument,  this  was  done.  The  elisors  presented 
ninety- six  men,  before  twelve  were  found  ignorant 
enough  and  indifferent  enough  to  act  as  jurors. 

*  'A  large  number  of  witnesses  were  examined, 
but  nothing  was  elicited  against  the  accused  from 
any  except  Brackenbury,  Daniels,  and  a  girl  named 
Eliza  Jane  Graham." 

These  witnesses,  according  to  the  narrator,  were 
not  considered  credible.  Messrs.  Brackenbury  and 
Daniels  contradicted  each  other,  he  claims.  More- 
over, they  had  committed  the  unpardonable  sin  of 
joining  the  Mormon  Church  pending  the  delivery  of 
their  testimony  in  court.  "The  evidence  of  Miss 
Graham,"  he  continues,  ironically,  "delivered  with 
the  impetuosity  of  her  sex,  was  all  that  could  be  de- 
sired— and  more,  too.  She  had  assisted  in  feeding 
the  hungry  mob  at  the  Warsaw  House,  as  they  came 
straggling  in  from  Carthage,  and  she  could  remem- 
ber where  every  man  sat,  and  what  he  said,  and  how 
he  said  it.  Unfortunately,  she  remembered  too 
much.  No  one  accused  her  of  willful  perjury.  But 
her  nervous  and  sensitive  character  had  been  power- 
fully impressed  by  the  influence  of  Smith,  and, 


UTHE   MORMON   PROPHETS   TRAGEDY."  89 

brooding'constantly  upon  his  death,  she  came  at  last 
to  regard  her  own  fancies  and  suspicions  as  positive 
occurrences.  A  few  alibis  so  discredited  her  evi- 
dence, that  it  was  held  to  prove  nothing  more  than 
her  own  honest  and  half  insane  zeal. 

"The  case  was  closed.  There  was  not  a  man  on 
the  jury,  in  the  court,  in  the  county,  that  did  not 
know  the  defendants  had  done  murder.  But  it  was 
not  proven,  and  the  verdict  of  not  guilty  was  right 
in  law. 

"And  you  cannot  find  in  this  generation  an  orig- 
inal inhabitant  of  Hancock  County  who  will  not 
stoutly  sustain  the  verdict." 

This  comment  upon  the  original  inhabitants  of 
Hancock  County  is  sufficiently  severe,  without  further 
criticism.  It  has  but  one  fault — it  is  not  true.  But 
let  that  pass.  There  are  some  facts  connected  with 
that  gross  miscarriage  of  justice  which  Mr.  Hay 
fails  to  chronicle.  The  trial  took  place  at  Carthage, 
beginning  on  the  19th  of  May,  1845.  Sixty  names 
had  been  presented  to  the  Grand  Jury  of  the  Circuit 
Court,  as  being  implicated  in  the  crime,  but  only 
nine  men  had  been  indicted.  These  nine  have 
been  named.  One  of  them,  Levi  Williams,  the  lead- 
er of  the  mob,  was  not  only  a  Colonel  of  militia, 
he  was  also  a  Baptist  preacher,  and,  of  course,  an 
4  ' eminently  respectable  and  conservative' '  man.  Judge 
Richard  M.  Young  presided  at  the  trial,  and  James 
H.  Ralston  and  Josiah  Lamborn  conducted  the  pros- 
ecution. The  defense  was  represented  by  William 
A.  Richardson,  O.  H.  Browning,  Calvin  A.  Warren, 


90          "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY. " 

Archibald  Williams,  O.  C.  Skinner,  and  Thomas 
Morrison.  The  panel  of  the  trial  jury  was  as  follows: 
Jesse  Griffits,  Joseph  Jones,  William  Robertson, 
William  Smith,  Joseph  Massey,  Silas  Griffits,  Jona- 
than Foy,  Solomon  J.  Hill,  James  Gittings,  F.  M. 
Walton,  Jabez  A.  Beebe,  and  Gilmore  Callison.  The 
trial  lasted  until  the  30th  of  May.  During  its  pro- 
gress, Mr.  Warren,  of  counsel  for  the  defense,  ar- 
gued, it  is  said,  in  the  course  of  his  plea,  that  if  the 
prisoners  were  guilty  of  murder,  then  he  himself 
was  guilty;  that  it  was  the  public  opinion  that  the 
Smiths  ought  to  be  killed,  and  public  opinion  made 
the  law;  consequently  it  was  not  murder  to  kill  them. 
Evidently  this  wretched  piece  of  sophistry  had  weight 
with  the  jury  in  making  up  their  verdict. 

Regarding  the  rightfulness  of  that  verdict,  there 
appears  to  be  a  marked  variance  of  opinion  between 
Mr.  Hay  and  Governor  Ford.  The  latter  says:  "The 
Judge  was  compelled  to  admit  the  presence  of  armed 
bands,  to  browbeat  and  overawe  the  administration 
of  justice."  "The  Judge  himself  was  in  duress, and 
informed  me  that  he  did  not  consider  his  life  secure 
any  part  of  the  time.  The  consequence  was  that  the 
crowd  had  everything  their  own  way."  In  the  light 
of  such  statements  as  these,  the  verdict  is  easily  ex- 
plained. The  jury  may  have  been  "ignorant  enough 
and  indifferent  enough"  in  the  first  place,  as  alleged; 
but  they  doubtless  became  well  enough  informed  as 
to  the  fate  that  would  befall  them  if  their  findings 
failed  to  please  the  mob,  and  were  sufficiently  inter- 
ested to  provide  against  the  perilous  contingency. 


"THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY/'          91 

The  perjured  testimony  of  such  witnesses  as  Lieuten- 
ant Worrell  (given,  as  Mr.  Hay  admits,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  "screening  a  murder,")  indicates  some  of 
the  means  employed  to  " prove"  the  requisite  num- 
ber of  u alibis,"  by  which  the  damaging  testimony 
of  the  girl  Graham  was  " discredited."  Possibly 
some  of  the  witnesses  were  as  prudent  as  Mr.  Hay 
confesses  himself  to  be,  when  tempted  to  mention  the 
name  of  a  "gentleman"  murderer  who  was  "prepared 
to  prove  an  alibi"  and  stood  "six  feet  two  in  his 
moccasins." 

THE    MORMON   EXODUS.  Bancroft  Library 

Emboldened  by  the  outcome  of  the  trial,  the 
anti- Mormons  pressed  hard  their  advantage.  Al- 
ready was  the  Nauvoo  Charter  repealed,  and  the  law- 
less and  oppressive  acts  that  followed  vindicated  the 
foresight  which  had  decreed  the  abatement  of  the  libel- 
ous,  mob-inciting  "Expositor."  The  plotters  con- 
tinued trumping  up  charges  against  the  heads  of 
the  Church,  notably  President  Brigham  Young,  and 
supplemented  these  vexatious  proceedings  with  a  de- 
liberate system  of  pillaging  and  house- burning;  the 
victims  of  these  dastardly  outrages  being  the  Mor- 
mon residents  of  Hancock  County,  no  longer  protect- 
ed by  their  Legion,  which  had  been  disbanded. 
Thomas  Gregg,  the  anti-Mormon  historian,  whom  no 
one  will  accuse  of  partiality  for  the  other  side,  can- 
didly admits  that  these  acts  were  absolutely  unjusti- 
fiable; "acts,"  says  he,  "which  had  no  warrant  in 
law  or  order,  and  which  cannot  be  reconciled  with 


92          "THE  MOEMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY. " 

any  correct  principles  of  reasoning,  and  which  we 
then  thought,  and  still  think,  were  condemned  by 
every  consideration  looking  to  good  government; 
acts  which  had  for  their  object,  and  which  finally  re- 
sulted in,  the  forcible  expulsion  of  the  Mormon  peo- 
ple from  the  County. " 

How  different  this  fair  and  dignified  comment 
from  most  of  the  statements  here  made  by  Mr.  Hay, 
whose  reckless  bias  charges  upon  "Mormon  assas- 
sins" the  justifiable  killing  of  the  man  Worrell,  one 
of  the  ring-leaders  of  those  robbers  and  house-burn- 
ers. But  Mr.  Gregg  lived  among  the  scenes  and  the 
people  whom  he  describes,  and  was  old  enough  to 
comprehend  the  situation.  He  did  not  confine  his 
researches  as  a  historian  to  reading  "as  a  child,"  in- 
scriptions on  the  tombstones  of  dead  mobocrats,  or 
listening  to  self -justifying  stories  from  the  lips  of 
mobocrats  still  living. 

Mr.  Gregg's  impartial  view  was  shared  by  other 
"original  inhabitants  of  Hancock  County,"  and  by 
many  citizens  in  various  parts  of  the  State.  Hon. 
Josiah  Lamborn,  Attorney- General  of  Illinois,  writ- 
ing to  President  Young,  soon  after  the  repeal  of  the 
Nauvoo  Charter  in  January,  1845,  says:  "I  have  al- 
ways considered  that  your  enemies  have  been  prompt- 
ed by  political  and  religious  prejudices,  and  by  a  de- 
sire for  plunder  and  blood,  more  than  for  the  com- 
mon good.  By  the  repeal  of  your  Charter,  and  by 
refusing  all  amendments  and  modifications,  our  Leg- 
islature has  given  a  kind  of  sanction  to  the  barbarous 
manner  in  which  you  have  been  treated.  *  *  * 


"THE  MOKMON  PBOPHET'S  TKAGEDY."          93 

It  is  truly  a  melancholy  spectacle  to  witness  the 
law-makers  of  a  sovereign  State  condescending  to 
pander  to  the  vices,  ignorance,  and  malevolence  of  a 
class  of  people  who  are  at  all  times  ready  for  riot, 
murder,  and  rebellion. " 

Governor  Ford,  in  a  letter  to  President  Young, 
dated  April  8,  1845,  made  the  following  suggestion: 
"If  you  can  get  off  by  yourselves,  you  may  enjoy 
peace;  but,  surrounded  by  such  neighbors,  I  confess 
that  I  do  not  see  the  time  when  you  will  be  permitted 
to  enjoy  quiet.  I  was  informed  by  General  Joseph 
Smith  last  summer,  that  he  contemplated  a  removal 
West;  and  from  what  I  learned  from  him  and  others 
at  that  time,  I  think  if  he  had  lived  he  would  have 
begun  to  move  in  the  matter  before  this  time.  I 
would  be  willing  to  exert  all  my  feeble  abilities  and 
influence  to  further  your  views  in  this  respect,  if  it 
was  the  wish  of  your  people."  The  Governor  advised 
a  Mormon  conquest  of  California,  and  the  setting  up 
of  an  independent  government  upon  what  was  then 
Mexican  soil.  But  Brigham  Young  and  his  confreres 
had  already  decided  upon  their  course.  The  Mor- 
mon people  were  about  to  undertake  another  exodus, 
this  time  into  an  all  but  untrodden  wilderness,  thus 
fulfilling  a  prediction  made  by  their  Prophet  in  Aug- 
ust, 1842.  Joseph  Smith  had  then  declared  that  the 
Latter-day  Saints  would  be  driven  westward,  and 
would  "become  a  mighty  people  in  the  midst  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains. " 

It  is  nearly  time  to  ring  down  the  curtain  upon 
John  Hay  and  his  "Tragedy," — I  had  almost  said 


94          "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY.  " 

travesty;  for  a  more  palpable  burlesque  upon  his- 
tory was  never  palmed  upon  the  public  by  an  Ameri- 
can writer.  Toward  the  murderers  of  the  Prophet 
and  the  Patriarch  he  is  generosity  itself;  but  toward 
the  victims  of  the  cowardly  and  cruel  massacre  at 
Carthage,  he  shows  not  a  spark  of  magnanimity,  nor 
of  common  Christian  charity.  Yes,  one;  he  admits  that 
'  i  Joe  Smith  died  bravely ; ' '  but  he  excuses  the  murder- 
ers of  the  heroic  and  innocent  man,  appreciates  their 
characters,  and  all  but  approves  their  damnable  deed. 
To  him,  as  to  them,  this  Prophet  of  God  was  evi- 
dently little  better  than  a  wild  beast,  worthy  only  to 
be  hunted  down  and  slain.  Speaking  of  those  who 
aspired  to  "the  Prophet's  mantle,"  he  says,  in  con- 
cluding his  article: 

"The  coolest  and  most  unbelieving  of  them  all 
succeeded  to  the  autocracy.  Brigham  Young, 
whether  guided  by  instinct  or  reason  I  do  not  know, 
avoided  the  fatal  mistake  of  Smith,  who  turned  back 
from  Missouri  to  Illinois,  and  the  crazy  fantasy  of 
Rigdon,  who  would  have  gone  from  Illinois  to  Penn- 
sylvania. Tribes  and  religions  cannot  travel  against 
the  sun.  Young,  during  the  troubled  year  that  fol- 
lowed, exerted  himself  to  gather  all  the  reins  of  gov- 
ernment into  his  own  hands ;  and  there  was  not  in 
all  the  slavish  East  a  despot  more  absolute  than  he 
when  at  last  he  started,  with  his  wives  and  his  ser- 
vants and  his  cattle,  to  lead  his  people  into  the  vast 
tolerant  wilderness." 

Brighain  Young's  name  and  fame  will  survive 
all  such  aspersions  upon  his  life  and  character.  And 


"THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY."         95 

as  to  the  martyred  founder  of  the  faith  which  num- 
bered the  great  pioneer  and  state-builder  among  its 
sincerest  believers  and  most  earnest  advocates,  a 
bigger  and  a  better  man  than  the  author  of  the 
"Tragedy"  of  the  "Mormon  Prophet,"  has  recorded 
imperishably,  from  a  non- Mormon  point  of  view,  his 
impressions  of  Joseph  the  Seer;  recorded  them  not 
from  hearsay  and  tradition,  but  from  personal  con- 
tact and  communion  with  the  one  whom  he  describes; 
recorded  them  in  words  that  will  breathe  and  burn 
when  all  that  John  Hay  ever  wrote  is  mouldering 
dust-covered  in  the  limbo  of  forge tfulness.  I  refer 
to  Josiah  Quincy,  and  the  following  remarkable  fore- 
cast from  his  philosophic  and  prophetic  pen. 

JOSIAH  QUINCY  ON  JOSEPH  SMITH. 

"It  is  by  no  means  improbable  that  some  fu- 
ture text-book,  for  the  use  of  generations  yet  un- 
born, will  contain  a  question  something  like  this: 
What  historical  American  of  the  nineteenth  century 
has  exerted  the  most  powerful  influence  upon  the 
destinies  of  his  countrymen?  And  it  is  by  no  means 
impossible  that  the  answer  to  that  interrogatory  may 
thus  be  written:  Joseph  Smith,  the  Mormon  Proph- 
et. And  the  reply,  absurd  as  it  doubtless  seems  to 
most  men  now  living,  may  be  an  obvious  common- 
place to  their  descendants.  History  deals  in  sur- 
prises and  paradoxes  quite  as  startling  as  this.  The 
man  who  established  a  religion  in  this  age  of  free 
debate,  who  was  and  is  to  day  accepted  by  hundreds 
of  thousands  as  a  direct  emissary  from  the  Most 


96          "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY." 

High,— such  a  rare  human  being  is  not  to  be  disposed 
of  by  pelting  his  memory  with  unsavory  epithets. 
Fanatic,  imposter,  charlatan,  he  may  have  been;  but 
these  hard  names  furnish  no  solution  to  the  problem 
he  presents  to  us.  Fanatics  and  imposters  are  living 
and  dying  every  day,  and  their  memory  is  buried 
with  them;  but  the  wonderful  influence  which  this 
founder  of  a  religion  exerted  and  still  exerts  throws 
him  into  relief  before  us,  not  as  a  rogue  to  be  crim- 
inated, but  as  a  phenomenon  to  be  explained. 

"The  most  vital  questions  Americans  are  asking 
each  other  today  have  to  do  with  this  man  and  what 
he  has  left  us.  A  generation  other  than  mine  must 
deal  with  these  questions.  Burning  questions  they 
are,  which  must  give  a  prominent  place  in  the  history 
of  the  country  to  that  sturdy  self-asserter  whom  I 
visited  at  Nauvoo.  Joseph  Smith,  claiming  to  be  an 
inspired  teacher,  faced  adversity  such  as  few  men 
have  been  called  to  meet,  enjoyed  a  brief  season  of 
prosperity  such  as  few  men  have  ever  attained,  ani, 
finally,  forty- three  days  after  I  saw  him,  went  cheer- 
fully to  a  martyr's  death." 

As  a  fitting  close  to  this  review,  I  present  this 
splendid  portrait  of  the  Prophet,  drawn  by  the 
master  mind  and  hand  of  Parley  P.  Pratt,  one  of 
his  early  friends  and  associates : 

PARLEY  P.   PRATT'S   DESCRIPTION    OF   THE    PROPHET. 

"President  Joseph  Smith  was  in  person  tall  and 
well  built,  strong  and  active;  of  a  light  complexion, 
light  hair,  blue  eyes,  very  little  beard,  and  of  an  ex- 


"THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY."          97 

pression  peculiar  to  himself,  on  which  the  eye 
naturally  rested  with  interest,  and  was  never  weary 
of  beholding.  His  countenance  was  ever  mild, 
affable,  beaming  with  intelligence  and  benevolence; 
mingled  with  a  look  of  interest  and  an  unconscious 
smile,  or  cheerfulness,  and  entirely  free  from  all  re- 
straint or  affectation  of  gravity:  and  there  was  some- 
thing connected  with  the  serene  and  steady  penetrat- 
ing glance  of  his  eye,  as  if  he  would  probe  the  deep- 
est abyss  of  the  human  heart,  gaze  into  eternity,  pen- 
etrate the  heavens,  and  comprehend  all  worlds. 

"He  possessed  a  noble  boldness  and  independ- 
ence of  character;  his  manner  was  easy  and  familiar; 
his  rebuke  terrible  as  the  lion;  his  benevolence  un- 
bounded as  the  ocean;  his  intelligence  universal,  and 
his  language  abounding  in  original  eloquence  peculiar 
to  himself — not  polished — not  studied — not  smoothed 
and  softened  by  education  and  refined  by  art;  but 
flowing  forth  in  its  own  native  simplicity,  and  pro- 
fusely abounding  in  variety  of  subject  and  manner. 
He  interested  and  edified,  while,  at  the  same  time,  he 
amused  and  entertained  his  audience;  and  none  list- 
ened to  him  that  were  ever  weary  with  his  discourse. 
I  have  even  known  him  to  retain  a  congregation  of 
willing  and  anxious  listeners  for  many  hours  to- 
gether, in  the  midst  of  cold  or  sunshine,  rain  or  wind, 
while  they  were  laughing  at  one  moment  and  weep- 
ing the  next.  Even  his  most  bitter  enemies  were 
generally  overcome,  if  he  could  once  get  their  ears. 

"I  have  known   him,    when  chained  and    sur- 
rounded with  armed  murderers  and  assassins  who 


98          "THE  MORMON  PROPHET'S  TRAGEDY." 

were  heaping  upon  him  every  possible  insult  and 
abuse,  to  rise  up  in  the  majesty  of  a  son  of  God  and 
rebuke  them  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  till  they 
quailed  before  him,  dropped  their  weapons,  and  on 
their  knees  begged  his  pardon,  and  ceased  their 
abuse. 

"In  short,  in  him  the  characters  of  a  Daniel  and 
a  Cyrus  were  wonderfully  blended.  The  gifts,  wisdom 
and  devotion  of  a  Daniel  were  united  with  the  bold- 
ness, courage,  temperance,  perseverance  and  gene- 
rosity of  a  Cyrus.  And  had  he  been  spared  a 
martyr's  fate  till  mature  manhood  and  age,  he  was 
certainly  endued  with  powers  and  ability  to  have 
revolutionized  the  world  in  many  respects,  and  to 
have  transmitted  to  posterity  a  name  associated  with 
more  brilliant  and  glorious  acts  than  has  yet  fallen  to 
the  lot  of  mortal.  As  it  is,  his  works  will  live  to  end- 
less ages,  and  unnumbered  millions  yet  unborn  will 
mention  his  name  with  honor,  as  a  noble  instrument 
in  the  hands  of  God,  who,  during  his  short  and  youth- 
ful career,  laid  the  foundation  of  that  kingdom  spoken 
of  by  Daniel,  the  prophet,  which  should  break  in 
pieces  all  other  kingdoms  and  stand  forever." 


